Kenny Smith Reveals What Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley Do While Watching NBA Games

The NBA on TNT broadcast’s reliable coverage of the league over the years has earned the appreciation of NBA fans worldwide. The chief attraction of the show is the banter and effortless chemistry between the panelists, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith. Smith recently spilled the beans on how Shaq, Barkley and others on the show spend their time off camera on the TNT set.

During an appearance on the BigBoyTV podcast, Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith talked about a lot of things in the world of basketball. Soon the conversation veered to the Inside the NBA show and the hilarious shenanigans that take place both on and off-air during the filming of the show.

In fact, Smith ended up exposing Shaq and Chuck’s antics while researching for the show. The former Huston Rockets player explained that the panel has a green room on the set with multiple TVs to watch NBA games and prepare their thoughts for the post-game analysis.

However, Shaq and Barkley are often found preoccupied with other things while watching the games. According to Smith,

“Charles is watching the game halfway but he’s got like Law and Order, Crashing Fast…whatever, whatever.. Food Network…whatever’s on…hockey-he’s got his eyes on both.“

“Shaq has like one eye-a quarter eye on the game, about half an eye-then he’s either DJing [or]…Five minutes later, ‘Oh this Papa John’s’…Like he’s doing multi-million dollar deals in the middle of the thing and he’s like, ‘Kenny, hold on, Should I get this three years for $28 million or two years for 19?‘” Smith added.

The host of the podcast, BigBoy, was very surprised after learning what goes on behind the scenes of our favorite basketball show. He was also very amused with Smith’s revelation.

Smith’s story adds up if you take into account the personalities of Shaq and Chuck.

Shaq has created an empire through his wise and lucrative investments in an array of brands, from Google to Papa John’s Pizza. So it’s very likely that he’s doing business deals while watching games. On the other hand, the Diesel’s love for deejaying is also well-documented.

On the other hand, the Chuckster also tries to catch up with his daily entertainment while watching the games he has to comment on. But does this revelation from Smith put a question mark on Shaq and Barkley as analysts.

So Shaq and Chuck don’t watch NBA games before commenting on them?

A couple of months ago, Charles Barkley made headlines after declaring that he watched hockey on TBS instead of following the ‘boring’ Nuggets-Timberwolves matchup during the playoffs. Smith’s recent story further highlights Chuck’s propensity to watch hockey and other things while watching NBA games.

Ernie Johnson: "Is it just me or does this game need a Red Bull?"

Charles Barkley: "I was watching hockey on TBS I'm not gonna lie. This game is boring as hell." 😂pic.twitter.com/11PTL28Ve8

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 24, 2023

Shaq and Barkley have often attracted heavy backlash for their sharp criticism of certain players. After Smith’s recent revelation, the duo could receive further flak for not doing the due diligence before criticizing players.

The seemingly harmless blooper can hurt the credibility of the NBA veterans as analysts in the long run.