Despite Affinity for Trae Young, Shaquille O’Neal Refuses to Trade Kyrie Irving to Charles Barkley’s Team for Hawks Star

It’s NBA All-Star weekend and the league is preparing to debut its new All-Star game format, pitting Team Kenny, Team Chuck, and Team Shaq against each other. Well, Ernie Johnson tried to make a trade happen between Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal on this evening’s Inside The NBA episode on TNT.

The subject of Kyrie Irving and Trae Young replacing Anthony Davis and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the All-Star game was brought up, which broke Chuck’s trend of having international players on his squad. After Ernie’s suggestion, Chuck offered the Diesel a simple trade: he would claim Irving from Shaq’s team, and Shaq would get Trae in return.

While Shaq initially denied Chuck’s trade due to Irving being the older, more experienced player, he did give him an ultimatum. The four-time NBA Champion promised his on-screen rival that he’d give up Irving, but only if he gave himself and the San Franciso crowd his best hawk “ah ah” sound.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you one chance to do a hell of an “ah ah” and if the fans love it, then I’ll okay the trade,” Shaq claimed. After Chuck’s attempt was met with silence, Shaq quirked, “No trade.”

Shaq then did the iconic Hawk call and was met with the cheers of fans. However, it seems like O’Neal won’t make a move to get the young Hawks star on his ‘old and battle-tested’ All-Star squad.

This new format will hopefully bring more eyeballs to the game, as the last several All-Star games have been largely missable. The league even canceled the Steph vs Sabrina shootout this year to keep the focus on their new and hopefully fresh Sunday format.