I ran into Charles Barkley at a bar in Orlando on my 30th birthday a few years back, as he was in town for the NBA playoffs, and I had two of my paid escorts attractive lady friends approach him and ask if he’d take a picture with me for my birthday and he said no. Two seconds later, I saw a flash go off and there was the Round Mound of Poon Hound taking a picture with four random girls. Naturally, I was a little pissed, but “Cool story, bro” aside, this is my way of saying that because Barkley is a dick, a lot of us have grown quite fond of him as a TNT analyst for the NBA. His honesty is simply fresh and funny.

But that doesn’t mean that he is a comedian. Barkley hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the third time this past Saturday, marking the second year in a row that he’s hosted the first show of the new year. And just like his first appearance in 1993 and his second appearance last year, Barkley’s third go as host was filled with terrible delivery, poor timing and the most excruciating cue card reading this side of an infomercial for The Perfect Meatloaf.

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In today’s Morning Links, we linked to two stories about the return of Back To The Future to the pop culture landscape, four whole years before holographic sharks and the Chicago Cubs as a legitimate baseball team. The most exciting story involved Nike creating the power-lacing Marty McFly shoes from Back To The Future II as part of a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parksinson’s Disease research. I was hoping the campaign would go all the way, bringing back Pepsi Free and making Thomas F. Wilson drive into huge piles of manure, but we just got the next best thing.

In the latest video, Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant (clearly beefing up his comedic timing to prepare for Space Jam 2) heads to Hill Valley’s Lone Pine Mall to buy shoes from Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader and ends up running into Doc Brown himself. The best part of the video is that it kinda works in continuity with BTTF2, and explains where Christopher Lloyd’s character would’ve gotten a pair of shoes to give Marty in the first place. Hopefully they’ll do a follow-up with Kobe Bryant that explains how Doc Brown learned to put Jennifer to sleep.

Anyway, the whole Nike/Back to the Future campaign is for a great cause, and there is literally nothing sadder in our world than Michael J. Fox trying to make it through video thank yous, so if you’re the type who makes enough money to buy futuristic space shoes, bid on a pair of these. Wear them with pride, and remember, they probably aren’t going to work on water unless you’ve got power.

[h/t The Basketball Jones]