Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal are now the heart and soul of the basketball media industry but Inside the NBA was still the best show even before Shaq’s arrival.
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Tuner Sports’ team of Inside the NBA starring Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, and legendary host Ernie Johnson is one of the best pre-/post-game shows in sports media.
They have won numerous accolades including multiple Emmys and to prove their legitimate dominance in the sports entertainment business.
The show started during the 1990-91 NBA season. Ernie has been its permanent host since its second year. His partners kept changing over the years.
Among his current colleagues, Kenny joined him first in 1998 following his retirement from the game just a year ago. Two years later, Chuck joined that crew and would later turn out to be the most hilarious basketball analyst.
They had a few more legends of the game join after Sir Charles. During the 2000s, Lakers legend Magic Johnson served as the third analyst between 2003 and 2007, and then Reggie Miller and Chris Webber split the role between 2008 and 2011.
Chris Webber could have been better for Inside the NBA if they hadn’t replaced him with Shaquille O’Neal
Even before O’Neal retired from the NBA in 2011, the queue was long to lure the larger-than-life personality who was already a TV favorite star nationwide during his playing career. His fame was no less than a Hollywood celebrity.
And so Turner Sports, irrespective of what they had going with C-Web, Barkley, and Smith, went all out in recruiting Shaq and got their wish too. Since then, that legendary panel that still could have had Webber instead of O’Neal is going on and on without failing to keep the entertainment quotient up.
But some fans of the game believe the show was way better with the former Warriors legend rather than the 4x Champ but because the latter has a better resume as a legend, we see him instead of Chris every day.
Chris Webber was a better fit than Shaq. Shaq tries too hard to be funny and gets mad when he’s wrong. Webber would egg shit on and he’s funny af too. Most don’t remember his days on it but I hated they replaced him with Shaqhttps://t.co/1DS5buZ0Gg
— Sean D (@theu_d) May 24, 2022
Obviously, some did argue his take.
— HoustonSportsHub (@HoustonSportsHQ) May 24, 2022
But the man came with an agenda to prove his point.
— Sean D (@theu_d) May 24, 2022
Sure, The Big Aristotle cries like a baby when the pun and jokes are poked at him, and he doesn’t care to go as low as he can go in making fun of the others. But that’s what makes the show better.
Who knows, Webber probably could have made the show even better, or maybe not. Nonetheless, as we are watching this panel for more than a decade, it seems like nobody would fit with each other as well as Shaq, Chuck, Kenny, and Ernie do.
