blogger ate my posts

Something happened here, and I don't know what it was....

http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/1119/1463436.html
Giddy Smith tells Barkley to pucker up
ESPN.com news services

Thanks to the best game of Yao Ming's young NBA career, Kenny Smith is practically giddy.

His buddy and NBA on TNT studio co-host Charles Barkley, meanwhile, is eating some crow and could be kissing some behind during halftime of Thursday's Rockets-Mavericks game on the network.

Smith on Monday told the Houston Chronicle that he will make Barkley live up to an on-air bet the two made last week. Barkley said that if Yao scored 19 points in a game this year, he would kiss Smith's posterior.

Payoff time, Smith said after Yao scored 20 points in the Rockets' 93-89 victory over the Lakers on Sunday.

"I make people pay their debts," Smith told the newspaper. "Charles will pay his debt to society, no question about it. He will pay his debt, and it will be on camera.

"Charles goes to Las Vegas a lot. In Vegas, you can't leave the table until you pay your debts."

Barkley's pronouncement grew out of Smith's assertion that if the Rockets are to return to the playoffs, Yao will need to become the team's best player.

"Charles went bananas over that," Smith said. "I wasn't knocking Steve (Francis) or Cuttino (Mobley), but I was saying that if the Rockets are going to win and get back in the playoffs, it's the big guy that's going to make it happen."

Smith said he researched the NBA beginning of T-Wolves' star Kevin Garnett, who entered the league out of high school, and found that Garnett had similar numbers to what Yao has been posting this year.

"One thing jumped out at me, and that was the fact that Garnett had a 19-point game in that span," Smith said. "I said that Yao will have a 20-point game and bump his numbers up, and Charles said that if Yao Ming scores 19 points, he would kiss my (behind)."

Yao hit all nine of his field-goal attempts and two free throws to put Barkley on the spot.

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