Weighing around 365 lbs as of now, Shaquille O’Neal is trying his best to be in good shape. Charles Barkley is on his own mission to shred 100 pounds from what he has been carrying around for two decades. However, both of them sometimes forget that they aren’t in the gym but on the sets of TNT. Sunday night, the two ran for a spot to interview a player after Game 3 between the Celtics and the Heat, resulting in the 7ft 1″ feisty O’Neal trying to stop 6ft 6″ Barkley and the latter squaring up with a fist.
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The Heat went on to win their 3rd straight game against the Cs and to take an insurmountable 3-0 lead in Eastern Conference Finals. And it clearly looked like 51-year-old O’Neal and 60 years young Barkley had more fight in them than the Celtics.
During their post-game presentation inside Kaseya Center, they showed some glimpses of it.
Charles Barkley was ready to fist-fight Shaquille O’Neal
When someone as huge as Shaquille O’Neal tries to stop you, you must change your route. Not Charles Barkley. Instead, the former Philadelphia forward showed the Big Aristotle some fists Sunday night, as Inside the NBA was prepping to interview Heat’s Gabe Vincent after his game-high 29-point performance against the Celtics.
O’Neal hilariously talked of repercussions if Ernie Johnson had not stopped him from doing what he would have done to Chuck in retaliation.
The two again went at each other when Barkley asked Vincent how coach Eric Spoelstra has been boosting every player’s confidence in the Miami camp. Shaq claimed Chuck was asking the same question he had already asked.
Barkley blasted him, saying he asked it in reference to the Head Coach, while O’Neal asked from Butler’s point of view.
Shaq and Chuck have been fighting for decades
Since he came into the NBA as a rookie in 1992, O’Neal was not fearful of any legends in the league, especially not somebody who was more than half a foot shorter than him.
Since his first year, he has been tussling with Barkley, going as far as literally fighting each other when Chuck was quite close to his retirement.
30 years on, they still can’t get enough of each other and go at it every now and then. The difference now is that there is no bad blood between the two.
