Shaquille O’Neal was frustrated TNT, the network that employs him as an analyst, didn’t carry the Magic’s jersey retirement for O’Neal. Charles Barkley was quick to put O’Neal on blast.
In leaked footage between the “Inside the NBA” crew during Sunday’s All-Star game broadcast, Barkley explained to the panel that O’Neal felt disrespected TNT didn’t broadcast the ceremony, which was instead carried on NBA TV.
“You can’t be mad about that,” Barkley said near the beginning of the clip. “He’s mad they didn’t show his ceremony β they showed it on NBA TV. … He says y’all didn’t give him any respect. It should’ve been on TNT.”
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Host Ernie Johnson explained there was an NBA doubleheader following the Magic game, which Barkley agreed with, saying the network wanted to carry the broadcast of the next game rather than show the jersey retirement.Β
O’Neal responded, saying he wasn’t complaining, he was, “just telling a fβg snitch. I was just telling people what they think I think.” Barkley said the network didn’t have to show it, and O’Neal again doubled down.
“Don’t matter to me. I’ve got three [jerseys retired]. That’s my new name, Threesel,” O’Neal said.
Kenny Smith got caught up a minute into the clip and said he agreed with O’Neal’s frustrations that TNT should have broadcast the jersey retirement. Barkley again defended the network and asked what was wrong with NBATV, to which O’Neal responded calling Barkley a “company guy.”
After the situation was explained to Smith, he suggested the jersey retreiement could have been carried on a split-screen.
Barkley then started to get in a few digs at O’Neal’s career. He joked someone in his ear suggested the network might carry the retirement of O’Neal’s Celtics jersey. Barkley then suggested he could use his influence in Phoenix to help O’Neal have his jersey retired there. Those digs led O’Neal to counter.
“That was after my fourth championship when you still had none,” O’Neal said.
Barkley told Johnson: “Ernie, when they retire his jersey in Cleveland, … we should do the show from there that night.”
Of course, O’Neal spent 37 games with the Celtics, 103 with the Suns and 53 with the Cavaliers, all at the back-end of his career after he finished playing with the Heat.
“A bum can never hurt my feelings,” O’Neal said of Barkley. “He’s homeless when it’s compared to me. Can never hurt my feelings, trust me.”
The “Inside the NBA” crew is a popular panel for sports fans in large parts because of the joking dynamic between Barkley and O’Neal, a pairing so iconic in their retirement that it has lampooned by “Saturday Night Live” on several occasions. It’s clear even when the cameras aren’t officially rolling, that dynamic never changes.
