The infamous Clippers-Rockets Tunnelgate produced one of the most hilarious moments in the history of Inside the NBA. While several fans took the fight between Chris Paul and Blake Griffin seriously, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley made fun of it on national television.
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During an appearance on The Mike Missanelli Show, Barkley talked about how that infamous incident played out on his show. Chuck recalled Shaq’s reaction upon learning that CP3 threatened Griffin to the point where he asked for police intervention.
Barkley recalled, “They’re like, ‘Chris Paul is trying to beat up Blake Griffin.’ I was like, Chris Paul is like 5’10, Blake’s like 6’9. Kenny said, ‘I’d relish a dude coming into a locker room trying to fight me.’ Shaq was saying, ‘Wait, please let them in the locker room because I’m gonna beat the hell out of them right there on the spot.”
Chuck further added that in all his years of being in and around the NBA, this was the first time he heard that police were called to intervene and stop a fight. The most shocking thing for the Inside the NBA panel was that Griffin, who is one of the strongest players in the league was scared of CP3, who is one of the shortest to ever play the game.
Even though Shaq and Barkley had a field day with that news, things did get a little serious after the Clippers-Rockets game. If people around the locker room hadn’t intervened, it’d have led to a brawl.
The Rockets marched right into the Clippers locker room
A ‘fight’ of that scale isn’t a common occurrence in the NBA. According to an ESPN report, after losing the game to the Clippers, Trevor Ariza, Gerald Green, Chris Paul, and James Harden, through a back corridor, marched into the Clippers’ locker room, ready to fight Griffin and Austin Rivers.
While the Clippers were in the middle of celebrating their win, they were shocked to see the four Rockets players standing in their locker room. After the incident, Griffin said,
“We were where we were supposed to be. We were in our locker room. So whatever happens over there, I mean, we can’t control what anybody else does. We control what we did. Everybody was in our seats. That’s it. You should ask them.”
The security available at the spot and team officials realized that it could quickly turn into something ugly and intervened to send the Rockets players back.
Hereafter whenever this incident is mentioned, the first thing that fans are going to remember is the iconic laugh that Shaq and Chuck had after they were told about the fight and that Griffin was scared of PG3.
