Charles Barkley is no stranger to going at his co-panelist, Shaquille O’Neal on the set of TNT’s Inside the NBA. In fact, the NBA legend has been doing it for so long now, that there are some very long YouTube compilations available that seemingly have to be updated on a weekly basis. However, while this may be commonplace today, this side of ‘Shaq and Chuck’ was a lot less common before. That said, it is during this time that Barkley delivered perhaps the most scathing diss that he has ever thrown O’Neal’s way.
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Shaquille O’Neal has done countless acting gigs since his retirement from the NBA. The former superstar has even acted in a couple of movies, with Grown Ups 2 arguably being the most well-known. However, his first-ever movie came while he was still in the NBA. Starring in the role of ‘Kazaam’, O’Neal played a genie with special powers that he used to fight crime. Unfortunately, while he did get the lead role, the movie was a massive flop, losing $150 million, as per ‘World of Reel’.
Due to the misfortune related to the movie, O’Neal has been the butt of many jokes, making it somewhat of a sore spot for the otherwise jovial icon. So, when Charles Barkley pressed all the wrong buttons related to this topic, O’Neal’s reaction was far from a surprise. Watch the clip in the following Instagram post to see how the incident unfolded.
Shaquille O’Neal was attempting to explain how Michael Jordan once told him that he needed to fail many times over before he could succeed. However, ‘the Chuckster’ seemed to be in no mood to hear that kind of thing, and chose to interject with, “Did he tell you not to be in Kazaam too?”, something that caused everyone else to erupt in laughter. However, while others appreciated the joke, O’Neal was visibly annoyed.
He went on to tell Barkley that he needed to watch what he said, hinting that O’Neal was ready to be violent if he didn’t. However, given his relationship with Charles Barkley, it is also likely that he didn’t really mean it.
That said, O’Neal is seldom seen that annoyed by anything he has been spoken to about. Clearly, the big man bore a deep sense of regret towards the movie during the time of the clip, something he may just carry with him for the rest of his life. However, we do hope he can get over it.
Michael Jordan’s advice
Getting back to what Michael Jordan allegedly told Shaq, it is likely that he was only looking to explain the importance of failure. Shaq was famously hasty to be great in the NBA. However, as countless NBA greats learned during their time in the league, success only comes after one has failed over and over again, something Jordan was no exception to. In fact the Bulls legend even has an iconic Nike commercial where he speaks about the power of failure.
“I missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I failed over, and over, and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.”
Later in life, Jordan also spoke publicly about parenting while having kids who play basketball as well. Speaking about it publicly, MJ said the following.
“As a parent, you have to simplify it as much as possible. To show them that, ‘Either way, I still love you if you missed that shot and I still think you are a great basketball player if you missed that shot.’”
These quotes really put into perspective the kind of mentality Michael Jordan has had towards the game of basketball. While he did his absolute best to be the best version of himself on the court, he understood the importance of failure in his career. And as time went on, he only looked to distribute this knowledge so that he could help the next generation gain similar levels of success for themselves.
