If you thought Charles Barkley could ruin Stephen A. Smith's awesome day, think again. Barkley called out ESPN and Kendrick Perkins on the NBA on TNT pregame show on Thursday night and also took a lightly veiled shot at Smith for his use of the Michael Jordan versus LeBron James debate.

While Perkins strongly cautioned Barkley on X, Smith offered a warning of a different kind to the Hall of Famer as he defended himself.

"Yo Chuck, stop the b.s. with the “y’all”, Smith tweeted. "Attach a name to it. I know I’ve been talking about @cavs being the No.1 threat to the @Celtics. Once you come over here, there’s gonna be some folks waiting to call YOU a fool. P.S. You know I love ya, though. See y’all soon. Yo @TheJetonTNT….workbook those free throws. Love y’all."

Well played from Smith from first character to last. It almost sounds confrontational until you see he's insisting he's not the one ignoring the Cleveland Cavaliers. And then he throws in a joke about how once the TNT guys are working with ESPN they'll probably be called fools too. Oh, and there's nothing but love!

Obviously, Smith has a very different dynamic with the TNT crew than Kendrick Perkins does. Perkins was called a roach on Inside the NBA last season after he suggested they didn't watch much basketball.

Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith has been a guest on the show multiple times, most recently taking on Kenny Smith in a free throw contest during the NBA Cup.

Between that and the fact that Smith just signed a new $100 million contract, it's no wonder he's ending his social media posts with inside jokes and declarations of love, rather than allowing Barkley's legitimate criticism about the whole Jordan vs. LeBron thing to bother him.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Stephen A. Smith Warns Charles Barkley That at ESPN He’ll Be a Called a Fool, Too.