Fool him once, shame on Kenny Smith. But fool him twice, shame on Shaq.
During a segment on Thursday night’s edition of Inside the NBA on TNT, we saw them dive deep into their bag of tricks to pull out off a class prank. This included Smith tricking O’Neal into walking toward the Christmas tree on the set to grab one of his gifts.
Smith, exactly like he has in the past, then pushed the four-time NBA champion directly into the tree. O’Neal absolutely should have seen this coming considering he has fallen victim to this somanytimes before.
It was either a well-timed maneuver from Smith or O’Neal was in on the bit.
If the longtime NBA big man was indeed part of the joke, he probably could have had a decent career in stunt comedy or professional wresting because he took that fall fairly well.
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Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith will also remain with the network and will continue the show during its migration to ESPN. But as for Shaq, his future is actually uncertain.
“Sources say O’Neal’s contract with WBD expires on July 1, 2025.
O’Neal has a slightly different deal than his three castmates because they do other things for WBD, including the NCAA tournament. Shaq’s deal is strictly for the NBA and it’s up in about eight months.
While sources say Shaq wants to remain on the show, he’s frustrated that there has been congratulations and press releases hyping that Inside the NBA is remaining the same while he is currently not under contract to be with the company next season.”
The show would simply not be the same without Shaq, whose chemistry especially with Barkley is unparalleled.
Shaq still has plenty of time to strike a deal with either Warner Brothers Discovery, ESPN, Amazon, or NBC before next season begins.
NBA fans got huge news on Saturday: The ‘Inside The NBA’ show will be back. Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal are heading to ESPN and ABC next season as part of an out-of-court settlement between Warner Brothers …
NBA fans got huge news on Saturday: The ‘Inside The NBA’ show will be back. Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal are heading to ESPN and ABC next season as part of an out-of-court settlement between Warner Brothers Discovery and the NBA.
Kenny Smith on Michael Jordan and 1990s Rockets-Bulls hypotheticals: “He did play. The team they lost to, the Orlando Magic, we swept.”
The Rockets and Chicago Bulls were the NBA’s only two champions from 1991 through 1998, and Houston’s two titles in 1994 and 1995 immediately followed Jordan’s temporary mid-career retirement in October 1993. Neither team ever faced the other in an NBA Finals.
Given Jordan’s status as arguably the best player in league history, many fans have wondered whether his Bulls might have won eight straight titles, had that odd 18-month retirement never happened.
The reality, however, is that Jordan was back and playing by the 1995 playoffs. His Bulls lost in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to Shaquille O’Neal and the star-studded Orlando Magic, who were later swept in the 1995 Finals by the Rockets.
In a new interview with Greg Rajan of the Houston Chronicle, Kenny Smith — the starter at point guard on Houston’s 1994 and 1995 championship teams, and now an NBA analyst for TNT — was asked if he thinks those Rockets get their proper due, seeing as how their titles came in between a pair of three-peats by Jordan’s Bulls.
You can’t erase history. I don’t know if you get proper due, but you can’t erase history. Everyone always says “Well, Michael was out.” No, he wasn’t — he was wearing No. 45 (in 1995). And everyone is saying “Oh, he was rusty.” No one was saying he was rusty when he had 55 points at Madison Square Garden that same year. He had 55 points against the Knicks, who were arguably the best defensive team in basketball at that time. No, he was Michael Jordan. (The Bulls) just weren’t as good a basketball team. The team they lost to, the Orlando Magic, we swept.
I never look at it as getting respect. You can’t erase history. And we’re here to stay. He did play that year, so there was only one year he wasn’t there. He did play (during the second title run), he was there and we just didn’t get an opportunity to meet them.
Q&A: Kenny Smith on TNT's uncertain NBA future, state of the Rockets and championship memories https://t.co/xtabbgyPYG
To Smith’s point, the Bulls had something of a hole at power forward in 1995. Horace Grant, who started there during the first three titles, joined the Magic (who went on to beat Jordan and the Bulls).
Dennis Rodman, who ultimately replaced Grant and started at power forward during Chicago’s second three-peat, wasn’t able to join the Bulls until the offseason after the 1995 playoffs.
As for Jordan and any allegations of rust, it’s worth noting that he averaged more points, rebounds, assists, and steals per game in the 1995 playoffs than he did in the ensuing 1996 championship run — all while shooting a higher field-goal percentage in 1995, as well.
The bottom line is that even with Jordan in elite statistical form, the 1995 Bulls simply weren’t good enough to beat the Magic. Two rounds later, that same Orlando team was swept by Smith, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and the rest of a gritty Houston squad.
Is all the talk about new Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s lack of coaching experience overblown?
Some Los Angeles Lakers fans are skeptical about new head coach JJ Redick, mainly because he lacks experience as either a head coach or assistant coach at the NBA and college levels. But there are others who see lots of potential in him, as he appears to have strong tactical and communication skills.
One man who doesn’t seem concerned about Redick’s lack of coaching experience is Turner Sports basketball analyst Kenny Smith. The two-time NBA champion appeared on “Scoop B Radio” with host Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, and he said Redick’s experience as an NBA player may be enough for him to succeed in his new role (at 2:22).
“He could play 12 years and they could still say that doesn’t count as ‘experience’. He’s been in multiple practices. He’s been in multiple places. He understands the dynamics of the game. Can you lead? That’s the difference between only being able to coach. So no, I’m not one of those that say that he doesn’t have the experience because he’s played in the NBA for 12 years. If I worked at IBM for 12 years and I quit, they’re going to make me a Senior Advisor for every company in the world! So, he has the knowledge but does he have the leadership qualities to lead a guy like LeBron James and AD (Anthony Davis). That’s going to be his biggest challenge.”
Redick played 15 seasons in the league and was an outstanding 3-point shooter. Before that, he spent four seasons at Duke University under legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The Lakers reportedly leaned on Krzyzewski for advice during their coaching search, so perhaps he gave them a vote of approval when it came to Redick’s leadership skills and ability to get his new players to trust, respect and follow him.
Charles Barkley absolutely roasted Kenny Smith here.
Charles Barkley wasn’t having fellow TNT analyst Kenny Smith’s position about the importance of the 2024 NBA Western conference finals.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks game, Smith argued that the winner of that series would become the face of the NBA between Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic.
To Smith, whichever team would come out of the Eastern Conference between the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers would get overshadowed by the star power of Edwards or Doncic, to the point where the loser would get more attention than the winner if the loser featured one of those players.
Barkley immediately chimed in after Smith by saying, “that was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.”
Kenny: [45 second sermon on the future of the NBA]
On the same night he got blasted for his unfounded hot take about perceived pettiness toward Caitlin Clark, Barkley got in a roast of his own at his co-worker for his hot take about the importance of this NBA playoffs.
“Music and sports have always been intertwined and probably always will be.”
Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith had no idea what was coming next. Neither did Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson, though neither would have recognized it even if they did.
As TNT’s Inside the NBA welcomed fans to halftime between the Mavericks and Clippers on May 1, the hosts of the beloved basketball talk show were met with a clip from “Euphoria” by rapper Kendrick Lamar, which was perhaps the most vicious of Lamar’s many diss tracks against Drake.
Johnson, unaware of the context of the music, introduced his co-hosts as the song continued to play. It took some time for Smith to realize what was happening but once he did, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Why y’all putting us in the middle of the rap beef, man?” Smith said on the broadcast. “Come on, man!”
Once he caught on, O’Neal laughed wholeheartedly at the absurdity of the situation. Barkley looked disgruntled and couldn’t believe “grown [expletive] men” would involve themselves in such petty drama as a rap beef. Johnson tried his darnedest to bring it back home and get the crew to talk about basketball, asking his co-hosts about the Mavericks to no avail.
Clever audio programming like this has become one of the many secret ingredients that leads to the continued success of Inside the NBA. Music is typically the first part of the halftime studio show and sets up whatever the crew is going to talk about for the next 15 minutes. None of this happens by accident.
“We’re just trying to throw as much stuff in front of Shaq, Charles, Kenny and Ernie that’s going to get a reaction out of them,” Keith Robinson, a TNT Sports studio producer for Inside the NBA, told For The Win. “It created a moment.”
Within seconds, fans on the internet went wild for the “Euphoria” clip. It was especially captivating because the song had only been released the previous day. The “Euphoria” lead-in was also a perfect encapsulation of the show that has aired since 1989, which has now spanned more than a decade with this unique cast of characters.
Robinson works directly alongside Donzell Floyd, a senior associate producer and director for TNT Sports, on these choices.
“Every now and then, our talent will have input but very rarely will they know what song is coming in,” Floyd said. “That’s why you saw the reaction you saw when we played the Kendrick record. They had no idea. They usually don’t know.”
For example, they knew when they played Kendrick Lamar, it could have gone one of several ways. That includes the cast potentially not even hearing it or having any reaction whatsoever.
“Or maybe Shaq is going to hear it and jump up and do something that is so crazy that it’s going to have to make us play an extra minute or a minute and a half,” Floyd said. “All of those things are on the table at that point.”
Multiple record labels have reached out to the folks at TNT Sports with a list of new releases they can potentially play on the broadcast.
It isn’t just the studio show that uses music to keep the audience engaged, though. During games on TNT’s broadcast, associate producer Erron Banks is also intentional with his music decisions.
Banks picks between 12-to-15 pre-cut songs when he is fading in music on the game broadcast. For the studio show, meanwhile, Floyd said that he will actually have somewhere between 60-to-100 songs queued up at any given moment.
TNT is under an ephemeral clause, which means they are allowed a courtesy one-time use only. When the game does re-air, they substitute their TNT theme music where those songs played.
TNT Sports
Whether it’s something as obscure as “Game Over” by Houston rapper Lil’ Flip during a Rockets victory or a popular throwback like nWo’s Wolfpac theme during a Timberwolves win, these choices can lead to viral moments online as well.
“Sometimes we have played music like Lil’ Flip and I haven’t thought of him in ages and we’ll see he’s trending on Twitter because people are tagging him that he was on NBA on TNT.” Robinson said. “I always wonder what guys like Lil’ Flip are thinking of when that happens. Did he even hear it or see it himself? Why am I trending right now?”
Music is genuinely one of the characters on TNT for the live broadcast and the studio shows. But if people are starting to notice that more now, that’s only because there are more people tuning in this time of year.
“It’s basically a part of the show just as much as we show fan tweets and posts talking about the guys, the music is a part of our overall coverage,” Robinson said “It’s just amplified now because people are watching the playoffs and more eyes are tuned in.”
“Music and sports have always been intertwined and probably always will be,” Floyd added. “It feels like it may be a little bigger recently but we have been doing music for years now because it’s a part of our DNA at this point.”
The cast will sometimes sing songs when they’re creating a mood on the set, even when they’re not on the air. But while the reactions are often beautifully spontaneous and improvised, the audio programming is not.
“It’s not just to play music,” Robinson said. “It’s all thoughtful and looking for the right moment for the right song at that moment to not only have an impact with the guys in the studio but for stuff to catch online.”
Inside the NBA producers are often thinking of location and demographic for the game they are assigned when they make their needle drops. Perhaps the halftime highlights lead with Anthony Edwards, then TNT may choose a musician from Edwards’ hometown of Atlanta.
Or if the game is in Indianapolis, Floyd is likely to have his headphones on midway through the second quarter to find the perfect track to play at the break. Even if people do not realize TNT chose to play Babyface during a Pacers game because the rapper is from Indiana, there was an intentionality to the process.
“It depends on where we are and then I start digging through the crates,” Floyd said.
Last season, for example, they had a Warriors game in the Bay Area and used it as an excuse to play Oakland-native MC Hammer.
O’Neal heard the song and brilliantly challenged Barkley to do MC Hammer’s typewriter dance, which immediately derailed all attempts at analysis for the remainder of the segment.
It wasn’t ideal to spark high-level basketball analysis but it was wildly entertaining for fans.
Similarly, a few years ago, the crew was providing halftime analysis when the Heat played the Bucks. The studio played Rick Ross because he is from Miami and O’Neal had a joking moment with Johnson, assuming he didn’t know who that was.
Johnson correctly identified the song as one by “The Boss” Rick Ross and hilariously shouted out “M.I. Yayo”, a signature catchphrase of the rapper. It is all a part of the magic that keeps this show so engaging.
“That’s just another way to have fun with them and give the audience a peek behind the curtain with not just basketball but part of the culture,” Robinson said.
Even though the future of TNT’s NBA rights are up in the air, it is this sort of careful attention to detail that makes Inside the NBA such a defining part of the basketball ethos.
“We have the best show going and we’re going to continue to do what we do.” Floyd said. “We hope that it impacts and affects someone and it makes your day feel that much better because we’re in the business of entertainment.”
With the news that TNT might lose the NBA, it’s time to share the story about Ernie Johnson and the @NBAonTNT halftime show he made for my Bar Mitzvah.
It began w my dad and ended w me being called a drug addict & ballhog (fair, tbh) in front of family & friends
With such uncertainty, fans of the show like author Ben Kaplan are paying tribute to Inside the NBA while it still exists.
Kaplan tweeted a thread about a Bar Mitzvah gift that he received from his father.
Back in 2000, Kaplan’s father called the folks at TNT to ask if they would record something for the occasion. Johnson was interested and sent back a VHS tape.
Here’s the first half of the report, featuring George Karl and Kenny. It’s cutesy and a neat thing for a teenage boy.
(Gonna cut this off before they get to Vecsey because that’s where the magic happens)
Johnson was joined by Kenny “The Jet” Smith, who is still a co-host of the show more than 20 years later.
They parodied an episode of Inside the NBA to report that Kaplan would skip high school and go straight to the pros.
While the two did not yet have Charles Barkley (who joined the show later that year) and Shaquille O’Neal (joined in 2011, this particular panel included former NBA head coach George Karl and veteran reporter Pete Vescey.
And here’s the second half. I still to this day have no idea how @PeterVecsey1 did this with a straight face. He knows he’s talking about a 13-yr-old on the biggest day of that kid’s life, with friends and family watching!
While the part of the story involving Vescey is very silly, there is also an incredibly heartwarming aspect as well. Kaplan shared that in 2022, his dad was fighting a rare cancer diagnosis and Johnson stepped up yet again.
Johnson recorded a special message for Kaplan’s father’s 72nd birthday, and he called it the best gift he ever received. The two began texting, especially while Kaplan’s father received treatments.
Ben, my friend. You think you do, but you have no idea what this series of events meant to me. My only explanation for the opportunity and the timing is, as @petermayermusic writes in his song “Loose in the World” is that this was all “the hand of the Divine.” Blessings on you and your family.
This is such a beautiful story the encapsulates what Inside the NBA means to so many people around the world.
Come play “Name That Mascot” with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith!
During the first weekend of March Madness coverage, TNT’s Ernie Johnson and CBS Sports’ Clark Kellogg decided to test their fellow basketball analysts Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith in a mascot trivia game.
In a spirited round of “Name That Mascot,” Barkley and Smith had to try and guess who the mascots were as they were held up, and the results were expectedly hysterical.
We’re not really sure who “won” this game, but we felt like winners as Barkley and Smith riffed with each other about their answers and the mascots at hand.
All in all, this was a very fun break from all of Saturday’s basketball action, which you can also enjoy below.
Ernie Johnson and Clark Kellogg tested Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith's knowledge of NCAA Tournament team's mascots.
Charles Barkley couldn’t help getting a few digs in at his co-host during March Madness
Charles Barkley doesn’t need to do a ton of research when it comes to picking his favorite teams each year in the men’s NCAA tournament.
If his Auburn Tigers are in the big dance, he’ll ride with his alma mater. And if the Tigers get knocked out — like they did on Friday in a massive Yale upset — he’ll just root for which ever teams are playing against the favorite teams of his NBA on TNT co-hosts.
With No. 1 North Carolina facing No. 9 Michigan State on Saturday, Barkley was asked about joining the Tom Izzo bandwagon and gave a very succinct and sarcastic answer.
“I want Izzo to win because I hate Kenny [Smith].” Barkley joked.
Charles Barkley at halftime of the North Carolina-Michigan State game:
"You can see [the Tar Heels are] a better team, and I think it's gonna end up getting out of hand."
Knowing you’ve just gotten under Barkley’s skin must still be so satisfying after all these years. Especially when Charles has certainly had worse reasons for picking teams in March.
With the news that TNT might lose the NBA, it’s time to share the story about Ernie Johnson and the 
