Inside the NBA has delivered another all-time TV moment once again.
While Kenny Smith was analysing Monday’s NBA playoff games. Shaquille O’Neal got up and ran off set to apparently use the toilet.
“You alright, big fella?” Charles Barkley asked, looking confused as O’Neal suddenly got up from his seat mid-segment.
“Keep talking, Chuck,” the 53-year-old replied, before Barkley reminded him, “We’re on TV.”
Smith hilariously added, as O’Neal kept on walking, “That’s that olive oil you’ve been drinking.”
O’Neal’s behaviour left the entire studio stunned, forcing them to go off-script when they were meant to be analysing the LA Clippers‘ 105-102 win over the Denver Nuggets.
O’Neal clarified that he needed to use the toilet, but his co-hosts couldn’t resist taking a few digs at the four-time NBA champion.
“I just hope we’ve got enough matches around here,” Barkley joked, while Smith added, “Please turn his mic off.”
When O’Neal returned, he told Barkley, “Stop talking so damn much.”
Fans couldn’t believe the hilarious impromptu moment and reacting online.
“Bro couldn’t hold it,” joked one fan.
“Has he s*** himself on live TV?” asked another.
“When you gotta go, you gotta go,” posted a third.
“We ALL know that jog,” wrote a fourth.
For most other shows it’d an awkward moment deemed incredibly unprofessional, but it’s these kinds of moments that have made Inside the NBA one of the most successful shows on TV.
One account posted the video and captioned it, “And to think we almost lost Inside the NBA,” with the video gaining over 200,000 views on X.
From next year, fans of the show will no longer be able to tune into TNT to catch their favourite analysts.
Inside the NBA is moving to ESPN after TNT licensed the show to the network.
This was because Warner Bros Discovery, who own TNT, were unable to secure the rights to the NBA after the league agreed a new 11-year $76 billion deal with ESPN/ABC, Amazon and NBC.
Johnson, Barkley, Smith and O’Neal are all expected to present the show next season as last week, the quartet paid tributes to TNT as they move channels this fall.
“One of the most gratifying things about the whole process is this: We start the NBA on TNT back in 1989, and then we become synonymous with the league,” an emotional Johnson said.
“For the fans out there, they think NBA, they think NBA on TNT. That’s why it hurts tonight—to know that’s gone after this next playoff run, and that’s the business of basketball, I guess.”
“But I will say this: No time for bitterness. It is time for appreciation. It’s time for gratitude.
Barkley took the opportunity to praise Johnson as a fantastic colleague.
“Me, Kenny and Shaq are three of the luckiest dudes in the world,” Barkley said.
“But the person who makes it all go, the reason we call you ‘The Godfather,’ Ernie Johnson, you are the man.”
