“Shaq Is Notorious For Not Watching Games”: NBA Fans Livid At Shaquille O’Neal For His Botched Karl Anthony Towns Take

Joseph Galizia | 23/04/2025
Shaquille O'Neal (L), Karl Anthony Towns (R)

As the NBA playoffs wages on, the series are getting a little tighter. That includes the Knicks and the Pistons, who are currently tied 1-1 after Detroit won their first postseason game in 16 years. The NBA on TNT crew gave their analysis on the series, including Shaquille O’Neal. Unfortunately for Diesel, he’s being called out for clearly not watching parts of Game 2.

Shaq threw credit to Knicks star Karl Anthony-Towns for “playing like a true big man” against the Pistons. Funnily enough, that wasn’t the case. KAT had a terrible second half in Game 2, didn’t score any points, and only pulled down six rebounds in his team’s loss. Ernie Johnson informed O’Neal of this in the moment on TV. Shaq seemed surprised.

Well, NBA fans weren’t going to let that slide. Several took to X and let the four-time champion know that his analysis has been slipping. However, more seem to be calling out the NBA on TNT crew for just straight up not watching the games they are breaking down.

“Shaq is notorious for not watching games,” said one person. “Him and Charles Barkley just say stuff and hope it fits that’s why I never take what they say seriously.”

Another person agreed and added, “I’m telling you these broadcasters don’t actually watch the games they just cracking jokes or on their phone in the studio.”

This is actually not an entirely new realization from the NBA universe. The NBA on TNT panel, Chuck and Shaq especially, have seemed to lean more into entertainment than pure game analysis. Because of that, there are times that they’ll just start speaking about ball regardless of whether or not they have fact-checked it first.

Back in March,  Shaq praised the coaching job Chauncey Billups had done for the Detroit Pistons. There’s just one problem. J.B. Bickerstaff is the Pistons coach, something Candace Parker called The Diesel out on. Sure, there’s a chance he just got the names mixed up. Or as the NBA Twitterverse has pointed out…he just doesn’t watch the games.

Post Edited By: Sameen Nawathe
Charles Barkley karl-anthony towns Shaq

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

Don’t miss these