Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley are two of the funniest men in all of sports media. The tandem has been on air on ‘Inside the NBA’ for 12 years now after Shaq retired in 2011 due to a career-ending Achilles injury. Over the years, they’ve said and laughed at some egregiously wild things. Them poking fun at Anthony Davis’s head injury seems like a topic that NBA Twitter doesn’t seem all too happy about.
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The Los Angeles Lakers, up 3-1 on the defending champion Golden State Warriors, went into Chase Center in the hopes of closing the series out in 5 games. Instead, they would get blown out and in the process, have to tend to AD as he got nicked in the temple by Kevon Looney’s elbow while battling for a rebound.
He exited the game in a wheelchair and this perplexed Chuck and Shaq, leading to a rather unsavory moment.
NBA Twitter goes at Shaquille O’Neal for laughing at Anthony Davis
In the midst of Ernie Johnson and Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith talking about the Anthony Davis injury, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley began to laugh. Chuck gave into his laughter when he heard Shaq crumple up a piece of paper, slyly letting it be known that he feels Davis is ‘paper soft’.
NBA Twitter users did not appreciate this lack of concern from the two Hall-of-Fame big-men. They took to social media to berate them, with one user saying, “I hope LeBron James embarrasses this clown, Shaquille O’Neal,” and another tweeting out, “Respect for Shaq just went tremendously down.”
I hope LeBron James embarrasses this clown Shaquille O’Neal for laughing at AD’S injury fr
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) May 11, 2023
Respect for Shaq just went tremendously down.
This is an All-Time Great Center playing for YOUR Lakers and this is how you act?
Such a clown 🤡
— ⁶ (@SpeakContext) May 11, 2023
Shaq laughing at Anthony Davis’s injury. Y’all still claim Shaq as a Laker?
— 🎗NBA•Fan🎗 (@Klutch_23) May 11, 2023
There has been no response from TNT, Shaquille O’Neal or Charles Barkley on this matter. With how active Shaq is on social media, both on Instagram and Twitter, it’s safe to assume that he has come across the hate that has come his way. Perhaps in the coming Game 6 TNT broadcast, they will look to address this moment.
Anthony Davis gets more hate than other unhealthy superstars
Anthony Davis isn’t the healthiest player in the NBA by any stretch of the imagination. However, the amount of hate he gets for being injury prone is nothing compared to the minimal amount of hate guys like Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Kevin Durant get.
They’ve all suffered major injuries like ACL tears and MCL sprains during various seasons as of recent and Davis continually receives the short end of the stick when it comes to criticism regarding being injury prone.
