Tag: Inside the NBA

Charles Barkley and Draymond Green had a hilarious argument during a pregame interview and NBA fans loved it

These two can definitely make for great TV together.

One thing you know is a constant about the Inside the NBA broadcasts is Charles Barkley having a blast. The Basketball Hall of Famer is never afraid to speak his mind. He seemingly jumps into every conversation headfirst, even with fans.

This mindset had hilarious results when Barkley interviewed Draymond Green during warmups for Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.

With the Warriors (-6.5 favorites coming into the night) seeking a commanding 2-0 lead over the Mavericks in the series, Barkley decided to learn more about Green’s warmup approach. Except he wanted to have a little fun with the Warriors star, so he took a small shot at Green’s offensive game.

That ignited a fantastic exchange between the two:

Amazing. Look at how Green shrugs Barkley off and transitions into his own shot about Warriors fans having “more rings” than the analyst, which Barkley also takes in stride. Great stuff, guys. It’s definitely all in good fun.

As an added bonus, Green eventually backed up his “shoot when I have to win championships” comment to Barkley. A big-time fourth-quarter three helped the Warriors eventually win 126-117:

What amazing theater all around.

NBA fans absolutely loved Barkley and Green making dynamite TV while showing thick skin:

Shaq absolutely blasted Charles Barkley for having a completely reasonable take on how hard it is to score on Marcus Smart

Whew boy this one REALLY got heated.

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley are always going to get into it. That’s a given on any night Inside the NBA is on your television.

Just look at the history between them. It’s hilarious most of the time. Other times you’re just like “wow, that was kind of disrespectful.” But you laugh anyway because you know it’s not that serious between these two.

We had one of those disrespectful moments on Wednesday night when the two of them were arguing about the Celtics and the Heat. It was sort of hilarious because, honestly, both of them had points and it probably didn’t need to get this heated or this personal. But, of course, it did.

It was about who on the Celtics could potentially stop Jimmy Butler from dropping 41 points on them again.

Barkley said Marcus Smart will be back in the lineup, so it’s likely the Celtics will put him on Butler and he won’t have that easy of a time scoring. Which, ya know, totally reasonable take.

Shaq would have none of it, though. He argued Jimmy Butler is a great player and great players do not get locked up by anyone including the Defensive Player of the Year.

You can understand where he’s coming from with that. But, uh, things just got out of hand.

“Shaq: You said last week, don’t be bragging that you a great player if somebody can shut you down. Marcus Smart ain’t shutting Jimmy Butler down. If Jimmy Butler wants to get 40, he’s going to get 40. Period.

Barkley: This is a totally different animal. It’s harder to score on the Defensive Player of the year, fool.

Shaq: No it’s not…You’d better look at my Finals against Dikembe Mutombo…Jimmy Butler is a great player. If he wants 40, he can get 40. I don’t want to hear that Defensive Player of the Year stuff.”

They kept going and going and going and, right on cue, Shaq basically told Barkley he was never as good at basketball as him.

“Shaq: When you’re a great player, you get greater. You never got greater at this point in your career. I did. I know what I’m talking about.

Barkley: You were riding on Dwyane [Wade] and Kobe [Bryant]’s coattails.”

Y’all. This devolved into absolute chaos. And I won’t lie — I loved every minute of it. From the Dikembe Mutombo shot that he’s probably somewhere confused about why he was brought into it to the Kobe and Dwyane Wade reference. It was phenomenal theater.

It wasn’t just me. Everyone else loved it, too.

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Pedro Martinez found something Shaq is worse at than free throws: batting practice

Swing and a miss and a miss and a miss

It was only about a week ago the Inside the NBA crew invited their TBS baseball counterparts over to Studio J to help Kenny Smith demonstrate a play live on air.

The fun little crossover event took an even more entertaining turn when that play resulted in Curtis Granderson scoring a bucket on Shaquille O’Neal—much to the absolute dismay of the Big Diesel.

Well, it was only fair the TBS crew invite Shaq over to their studio and offer him a shot at redemption with a little batting practice. The only slight problem, as pretty much anyone who has played the sport will tell you, is that hitting a baseball is very, very hard.

It’s even harder when the man throwing that baseball is Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez.

Needless to say, it did not go well for Shaq.

Oh dear.

What an unenviable position for Lauren Shehadi, too, having to give little league instructions to one of the greatest athletes ever. It’s not like Pedro was even throwing heaters. He was just lobbing them over the plate so Shaq could make contact.

Martinez even joked the only way O’Neal is getting on base is by leaning into a ball.

Then again, Pedro might want to be careful with his words. All it takes is one swing for Shaq to demolish a pitch and leave Martinez’s ego bruised forever. Kind of like what Granderson did to Shaq last week.

 

Curtis Granderson got a bucket on Shaq on the ‘Inside the NBA’ set and fans absolutely loved it

Wowwwww Shaq gotta get revenge.

Somebody needs to give Kenny Smith a coaching job, ASAP. This man has Curtis Granderson scoring on Shaquille O’Neal. Something ain’t right.

Listen. Granderson is 6’1. He was a beast of an athlete in his heyday on the baseball diamond. We know that and we respect him for that. But he has absolutely no business getting buckets on Shaq.

Shaq? He’s 7’1, y’all. Pretty easily. He’s got a full foot of height on Granderson and he’s much bigger than him, too. But with the help of Smith’s coaching during this Warriors’ simulation at halftime on the Inside the NBA set, Granderson got his bucket.

The crew was doing one of their usual breakdowns at halftime during the Grizzlies-Warriors game and Kenny enlisted the help of the TBS baseball crew. Each of the baseball crew members played a Warrior.

Pedro Martinez was Jordan Poole, Granderson was Steph Curry and Jimmy Rollins was Klay Thompson. Granderson goes to set a pick for Rollins while Pedro played point.

Granderson sets a solid pick on Shaq and then cuts to the rim where he does this. 

YOOOOOOOOO. That’s crazy. You’d think Shaq might send that shot into next week, but nah. He whiffed on the block. It was wild.

Somebody has to give Kenny Smith a coaching job off the strength of this alone. Fans absolutely loved this.

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La última broma de ‘Inside the NBA’ a Charles Barkley es de lo mejor

A través de los años han habido cientos de programas de deportes que lo han intentado todo para ser buenos, al final fracasaron porque era realmente fácil ver que estaban forzando las cosas y que estaban siendo falsos. Solo hay uno de esos programas …

A través de los años han habido cientos de programas de deportes que lo han intentado todo para ser buenos, al final fracasaron porque era realmente fácil ver que estaban forzando las cosas y que estaban siendo falsos.

Solo hay uno de esos programas que siempre ha valido la pena ver y, por supuesto, es el programa Inside the NBA de TNT. El equipo formado por Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith y Charles Barkley lleva mucho tiempo siendo el mejor en este tipo de programas y, ahora que estamos en plenos playoffs de la NBA, es la mejor época del año para ellos y para nosotros.

Si necesitan más pruebas, vean lo que hicieron anoche durante una de sus secciones legendarias: Gone Fishing. El equipo siempre ha disfrutado hacerle bromas a Barkley y anoche lo volvieron a hacer; Johnson fue el encargado de llevarlo directamente al momento.

Siéntense, acomódense y vean este video y disfruten de una buena carcajada.

Traducción: El mejor programa.

 

Fue perfecto. ¿Quién hubiera pensado que ver pelotas de ping pong caer sería tan divertido?

Todas las otras cadenas tienen este tipo de programas para todos los deportes y, en general, son imposibles de ver. ¿Por qué? Porque no pueden replicar la felicidad genuina que estos cuatro personajes proyectan cada vez que se encienden las cámaras. Hay demasiados programas con antiguos atletas sentados en una mesa riéndose de las malas bromas de los otros presentadores, pero es fácil ver que están haciendo un esfuerzo por parecer genuinos, pero no lo logran.

No hay ningún otro programa que mantenga a los espectadores interesados hasta altas horas de la noche simplemente para ver qué van a seguir haciendo.

Ernie, Chuck, Kenny y Shaq son los mejores de todos los tiempos y somos muy afortunados de tener este programa en nuestras vidas basquetbolísticas.

 

Artículo traducido por Ana Lucía Toledo

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‘Inside the NBA’s’ latest prank of Charles Barkley shows again why they’re the best

These guys are the best.

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

Over the years there have been hundreds of sports studio shows that have tried very hard to be good, only to fail because it’s really easy to see when they’re faking it.

There is only one of those shows that has ever been worth watching and that, of course, is the Inside the NBA crew on TNT. Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley have long been the best to ever do these types of shows and with the NBA playoffs in full swing this is the best time of the year for them and for us.

If you needed any more proof that just check out what they did late last night during one of their legendary bits – Gone Fishing. The crew has enjoyed pranking Barkley and they got him again last night, with Johnson brilliantly leading him right into it.

Just sit back and watch this video and enjoy a good laugh.

Perfection. Who knew falling ping pong balls could be so funny?

All the other networks have these types of shows for all the sports and they’re all pretty much unwatchable. Why? Because they can’t replicate the genuine joy these four guys bring to their broadcasts every time the cameras go on. There are lots of shows with former athletes sitting around tables laughing at each other’s bad jokes but you can see right through them and can tell they’re trying their best to seem authentic but failing miserably to do so.

There’s no other studio show that would have people staying up deep into the night just to see what they do next.

Ernie, Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq are the GOATS and we’re lucky to have this show in our basketball lives.

Quick hits: NFL post-draft power rankings… Draymond’s perfect reaction to groin kick… Dirty hit in NHL playoff game… And more. 

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

– The NFL draft is over and now it’s time to look at where everyone stands. Christian D’Andrea breaks out his latest power rankings, with a familiar team at the top.

– Draymond Green had a perfect, four-word reaction to Jae Crowder kicking Luka Doncic in the groin last night.

– The NHL playoffs began last night and Toronto’s Kyle Clifford was ejected 10 minutes into the Maple Leafs-Lightning game for a dirty hit.

– This ‘automatic’ strike out call in a minor league game had MLB fans up in arms.

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Charles Barkley said Kobe Bryant was almost a member of the ‘Inside the NBA’ crew and now I’m so mad we didn’t get this

Man. Kobe would’ve been perfect on ‘Inside the NBA’

Kobe Bryant had a very clear interest in media after his playing career was over with the Lakers.

He’d done work with ESPN on his “Detail” video series where he’d break down play from the current generation of NBA stars. He also won an Oscar for his short film “Dear Basketball” that was released back in 2018.

Apparently, he had another media venture that he considered once before eventually passing on it. And that was being a member of the NBA on TNT Thursday night crew.

We could’ve apparently had some mixture of Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. That’s according to Barkley, anyway.

The NBA on TNT host visited Draymond Green’s podcast and explained how Bryant had actually signed a contract to come on the show but “didn’t want to do all the other [expletive].”

Take a listen.

“He had signed with us. David Levy, my old boss, had signed him to a deal. And we were excited. We were really excited. And then he called me back a week, 10 days later…like, ‘Yeah, Kobe’s not going to come.’ I’m like, ‘why?’ Because he don’t want to do all the PR stuff. He don’t want to go on radio shows and talk about basketball. Like, well, that’s part of the gig…He didn’t want to do all that and he never came to work for us.”

That’s fascinating. It doesn’t sound like a deal was ever truly done if Bryant didn’t actually have to come on the show. But even if they were just close to making this happen, it sounds pretty incredible.

Just imagine adding Bryant to the rest of that crew. No, wait. Scratch that. Imagine just reuniting Bryant with Shaq as part of that crew. That would’ve been amazing television. Could you imagine the debates they would’ve had at that table? Man. We needed this, y’all. Absolutely needed it.

NBA fans spent their time online just imagining how incredible this would’ve been.

The NBA put the 2022 All-Star starter selections in a briefcase because they were so afraid of getting scooped

The All-Star starter names are being treated like nuclear codes out here.

The NBA has always tried to drum up the pageantry of some of the biggest moments of the year. Naming the All-Star starters is one of those big moments.

But every single season that comes around that moment gets hilariously stepped on by either (or both?) ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski or The Athletic’s Shams Charania when they somehow get the scoop of who is named to the rosters ahead of time.

It’s hilarious every single season because you know someone in the league office is just seething that this information got out.

Not this year though. Nope. The NBA is not playing those games. The rosters will be first revealed on Inside the NBA and they are making sure of it.

How you ask? By going over the top and sealing the rosters inside of a briefcase that absolutely no one is allowed to open until the time comes.

Yes, seriously. It’s hilarious. Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes reported the crew will get the names after an independent firm tabulates the votes and hand delivers the results to the studio.

Fam. This is absolutely hilarious. The funniest part was that fans knew exactly what was going on here. This was the NBA trying not to get scooped.

Charles Barkley absolutely ripped the Lakers front office to shreds on ‘Inside the NBA’

Barkley is spot on with this one.

Charles Barkley is the hot take machine of “Inside the NBA.” Him coming with hot takes and funny barbs is what really sells the show.

Sometimes those hot takes can be wrong and silly, but other times he can be absolutely spot on with the analysis. That’s what happened on Thursday night when the crew was talking about the Lakers.

They were talking about the current state of the team after Wednesday night’s loss to the Pacers. Frank Vogel’s job security was a major question after he benched Russell Westbrook to end the game and the team still lost.

Barkley didn’t want to hear about either of them, though. He insisted it isn’t their fault. Instead, the blame should be shifted to Rob Pelinka and the team’s management.

“They’re blaming Frank Vogel and Russell Westbrook. Listen, the people up top who put that trash together are running and hiding like cowards, saying ‘It’s Frank, it’s Russ. You put all them old geezers out there.” 

Sheesh, man. Barkley really went in on the Lakers’ management situation. He wasn’t done, though. He made another great point after that one.

“The best guy other than LeBron in the last month has been who? Stanley Johnson. And for y’all to be bringing in a guy who was on the street and he becomes your second best player…it’s ridiculous, man.” 

I don’t know if Johnson has been their second best player, but he has been really good and an impact role player for the Lakers.

Barkley is right, though. The fact that Johnson is even in the discussion as one of the Lakers’ bigger impact players in recent weeks speaks to the terrible job the team did putting together its roster in the first place. That’s where the blame should be shifted. Not on Frank Vogel. Not on Russell Westbrook.

Just about everyone agreed with Barkley.

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‘Inside the NBA’ just showed Charles Barkley’s doppelganger on a barbershop poster and the internet so many jokes

How is this not Charles Barkley?

Have you ever paid attention to that card or poster on the wall in your barbershop? You know, the one where it has all of the haircuts on it.

When you hit a new barbershop for the first time or want to try a different cut, you’re supposed to look at the card there on the wall and select which cut you want. It’s like a McDonald’s menu for haircuts, basically. Or at least it’s supposed to be.

The thing is no one ever actually pays attention to them. You just kind of go and sit in the chair and tell the barber what you want.

But, for whatever reason, a friend of Kenny Smith’s actually did. He went to go get a haircut at a barbershop in Las Vegas and took a look at the card. And on it there was someone who looked exactly like…Charles Barkley.

Except he wasn’t bald — he had a cut that made it look like he was the newest member of Boyz II Men. It was fantastic.

Y’all cannot tell me this ain’t Chuck, man.

This is absolutely hilarious. The jokes started flying and y’all know the internet did not show any mercy.

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