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.
Obviously, some did argue his take.
But the man came with an agenda to prove his point.
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.
![Jason Williams and Chris Webber have always been known to indulge in strange antics with each other, which was raised by Comedian Andrew Schulz, on his show, Flagrant. Appearing on the show, Jason Williams was asked whether he was involved "in a drive-by paintball shooting of Chris Webber's house in Sacramento". The White Chocolate burst into laughter and "plead the fifth". Williams confessed that maybe "his house caught some bullets along the way". However, to everyone's surprise, he told the comedian that "he [Chris Webber] was probably with me in some them drivebys." Adding to this, Williams also shared a hilarious story of a similar driveby with Webber, where the latter's shoe fell off but he had to somehow get it back. "We were doing that one time..we couldn't get in the gate or something so we decided we're going to go down and do our thing at the security guard at night, right, so we got two little scooters we are riding on these scooters and we dropped them in the dark and we are walking through the woods and whatever, we go the paintballs, we got the rocks, boom boom and we take off and left the scooters. But C Web's shoe falls off. And we got back and I was like 'Bro, where is your shoe?'" The story left everyone in the panel in splits as Williams made the 2021 Hall of Fame Inductee go all the way back to fetch his shoe because living in an all-white community, Webber was probably the only one with that size of shoe. However, on a serious note, the 2006 NBA champion confessed that it was one of the most fun times he had with his former teammate. He added that "it was a blessing in disguise" because they had to play a lot of games in different locations. It is obviously heartwarming to see such a chemistry between the legendary duo of Sacramento Kings. Jason Williams once had to travel in the undercarriage of the team bus Rookie hazing has been a part of teams in the NBA, where the veterans on the team try to build chemistry with young players in their own ways like alotting chores. Chris Webber once narrated one such incident where the rookie Jason Williams hid in the undercarriage of the team bus to avoid it. Upon reaching the hotel, the team noticed that Williams was missing. After searching for some time, the team looked under the bus and there was the 1998 draftee. When Webber asked him the reason, White Chocolate responded, "I don't wanna ride with y'all bi*ches up here." Even though it is a fun tradition among teammates to get to know each other, it did take a toll on the one-time All-Star. However, it was not long after this, the two developed good team ability to make some amazing plays together.](https://cdn-wp.thesportsrush.com/2023/11/7f3ad985-nba-2023-11-08t231816.707.jpg?format=auto&w=384&q=75)