Basketball

Inside the NBA once replaced 7-foot Shaquille O’Neal with 6’1″Jay Pharoah’s cross-eyed ‘Shaq’, and it was HILARIOUS

Tonoy Sengupta
|PublishedJun 30, 2022

Inside the NBA once replaced 7-foot Shaquille O'Neal with 6'1"Jay Pharoah's cross-eyed 'Shaq', and it was HILARIOUS

When the cast of Inside the NBA hilariously ragged on Shaquille O’Neal for not being present with them during the 2019 NBA Awards

This NBA offseason has been quite the eventful one so far. But, we will admit, we do miss the shenanigans the cast of Inside the NBA pulled on a daily basis.

Whether it be roasting a player for their play, some comments they made in the media, or just pulling out real water guns to play, while the whole thing was being aired on national television, this cast of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal has never, in their life, been a boring one.

But what happens when one of them is missing?

Well, on most occasions, the missing cast member would be replaced by another known member within the NBA community, someone like Dwyane Wade, or Draymond Green. But, during the NBA Award show in 2019, when Shaq was missing, the rest of the cast went in a very… different route.

Also Read: “LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kyrie Irving, and all do things at such a high level”: Klay Thompson revealed the players who gave him the toughest time to guard

The cast of Inside the NBA decided to hire comedian Jay Pharoah to hilariously play Shaquille O’Neal in his absence

And just so that we’re clear here, this wasn’t some random selection made by the guys upstairs.

No, no, no! You see, Shaq has actually reacted to Jay Pharoah’s hilarious impression of him during a prior occasion. And his reaction was strong, to say the least.

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Long story short, Shaq didn’t like it. So, what do his fellow, beloved co-workers do during his absence of his during a massive event?

Well, this.

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Perfection.

That is the only word anybody, anywhere can describe this performance as. And we will not tolerate any arguments to the contrary of that statement.

Also Read: “I learnt from Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become better!”: 7-footer Shaquille O’Neal claims to be more dominant than his predecessors

About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.