Shaquille O’Neal bests Charles Barkley in a classic ‘Who he play for?’ when he yells out ‘Guangdong Tigers’ on NBAonTNT.
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Shaquille O’Neal may have had a lackluster end to his 19-year career with him tearing his Achilles on the Boston Celtics but he would eventually land a job right after that would change sports media forever. Him joining the set of ‘Inside the NBA’ on NBAonTNT would be one of the most quintessential moments in NBA analysis history.
NBAonTNT already had their hands full with one loud-mouthed, Hall-of-Famer in Charles Barkley but getting Shaq to come on board was just the icing on top of the cake. While he did take some time to adjust with Kenny even admitting O’Neal wasn’t doing a good job in the beginning, he eventually got used to it.
It’s difficult for athletes to transition from being on the court and playing to being the people who criticize the players that are now playing. Shaquille O’Neal certainly took his time and one of the greatest moments he had while on ‘Inside the NBA’ would come during the period of him getting used to it all.
Shaquille O’Neal yells out ‘Ni-Hao’ over and over again.
‘Who he play for’ is a fan favorite segment on ‘Inside the NBA’ as it truly shows just how much Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley know about the current state of the NBA. In all fairness to them however, some of the guys put on the screen for them to guess are genuinely pretty difficult to know if you aren’t glued to NBA content 24/7.
On this particular night however, Shaq seemed to have gotten extremely confident in his ability to know where more or less obscure basketball players were situated. When it came to former 26th overall pick, Aaron Brooks, both Chuck and Shaq knew where he was playing.
While Barkley was right when he said he played in China, ‘the Big Aristotle’ lived up to the nickname by correctly knowing he not only played in China but was part of the Guangdong Tigers. This led to him celebrating in a way that would go down as one of the greatest moments in NBAonTNT history.