Shaquille O’Neal Puts “Chuck’s Future Coworker” Kendrick Perkins on Blast, Honors Him With a Top-2 Spot on All-Time Shaqtin’ A Fool

As the NBA regular season is coming to a close, we’re rapidly coming to the end of a three-decade run of Inside the NBA on TNT. While it looked like the show was going the way of the set shot, a deal was struck that will allow it to migrate to ESPN next year. That hasn’t stopped the cast and crew from treating this as the end of an era, and last night in its final regular season show on TNT, viewers were treated to an all-time edition of Shaqtin’ a Fool to go along with other blast from the past segments they’ve done.

They could have made an hour-long segment out of this that viewers happily would have eaten up, but instead they just went with four picks. First off was Torrey Craig and Andre Drummond, two Bulls teammates that tried to finish the same alley-oop in what Shaq called a “double dutch dunk.”

Part of what makes Inside the NBA’s comedy segments so endearing is the lo-fi graphics and tech they use, and this one was no different, as images of Benny the Bull, Walter Payton, Barack Obama, and others all came flying in to help Craig and Drummond try to slam it home.

Next up was Otto Porter Jr. turning his brain on “Otto pilot” as Shaq said. Porter was actually an above average defender throughout his career, but on this play he fell asleep so bad as his man cut to the other side of the court that he was practically comatose.

Number two on the list was Kendrick Perkins, or “Chuck’s future coworker,” as Shaq put it. Big Perk didn’t just have one play make the list, he had an entire montage that was spliced in with images of Charles Barkley looking exasperated. “Not your favorite player!” Kenny Smith yelled when Perkins’ name was announced.

ESPN’s NBA guys vs. the Inside the NBA crew

Perkins and the Inside the NBA crew have beefed on and off for a while now, but it was extra hilarious that they put him on blast on this all-time Shaqtin’ a Fool segment when they’re so close to actually being coworkers.

Perk and Stephen A. Smith especially have gone back and forth with Kenny, Shaq, and Chuck, but that was when they worked for different networks. ESPN personalities are discouraged from disparaging each other, although the network cares more about selling ads than real discourse. The question remains: will some kind of truce be reached, or will ESPN let it continue?

For entertainment’s sake, every NBA fan has to hope that the magic of Inside the NBA remains intact even as it transitions to The Worldwide Leader. The best studio show in sports needs to stay that way, especially if it means lighting up Big Perk whenever possible.