Barkley will honor bet to kiss Smith’s rear

Pucker up, Charles.

Charles Barkley said Wednesday he would honor his ill-advised bet with TNT co-analyst Kenny Smith by smooching his colleague’s rear-end on Barkley’s talk show.

Barkley’s bet came last Thursday night as he and Smith debated the weaker-than-expected game of Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets’ 7-foot-6 rookie center from China.

Barkley said he’d kiss the above-mentioned part of Smith’s anatomy if Yao scored 19 points in a game. At the time, the bet seemed a safe one for Barkley: Yao averaged just 3.3 points in his first six games before he scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in a loss to Phoenix last Friday night.

Just two nights later, Yao scored 20 points ” making all nine of his field-goal attempts ” in a 93-89 victory against the Lakers in Los Angeles. Although the Lakers didn’t have Shaquille O’Neal, the performance was enough to make Barkley eat his words.

“I am going to pay up (Thursday) night, Barkley said Wednesday on CNN’s “TalkBack Live” program. “If you make a bet, you pay up. I just told Kenny to take a shower before the show. I made the bet and I’m going to stick by my word. Ugh.”

Smith’s replied by saying, “Sometimes even when you win, you lose.”

Barkley said payment will be delivered during his talk show, “Listen Up!” which airs at 6 p.m. Central time on Thursday night, before TNT’s doubleheader.