Inside the NBA continues to stay in the spotlight beyond basketball, with Shaquille O’Neal at the center of its latest viral moment. As Roland Garros fever builds and TNT prepares to air coverage of the tournament, the crew embraced the crossover by bringing tennis into the mix.
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On Media Day of the upcoming tournament, several tennis stars were asked who they would pick as their doubles partner from Inside the NBA. Shaquille O’Neal came out as a heavy favorite with Coco Gauff picking the Hall of Famer for a peculiar reason.
The tennis stars showed their love for the TNT show and praised every member of the crew before answering the question. Other than Frances Tiafoe, who picked Kenny Smith and Chris Eubanks, who picked Ernie Johnson for his leadership quality, everyone picked Shaq as their partner.
Gauff said, “Probably Shaquille O’Neal because I’ve met him and his hands are like, massive.” Charles Barkley was the only one from the crew who didn’t get a single vote in his favor. Several players outlined how terrible his golf swing has been, and they believed it would be a disadvantage to have Chuck on their team.
To cap it all off, the Inside crew brought in tennis pro Anthony Lee for a quick tutorial. That’s when Shaquille O’Neal showed off a picture-perfect serve that genuinely caught everyone off guard. Shaq hit his first serve perfectly at the spot on the net and yelled, “Are you not entertained?”
Shaq dished out a PERFECT serve with tennis pro Ant Lee in Studio J pic.twitter.com/ULCenU4J1A
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 9, 2025
The team that shies away from handing out compliments to one another was in awe of the big fella.
After being neglected by all the tennis stars, Chuck stepped up during the on-set practice to show that they had made the wrong decision. Chuck proudly said, “As a guy who plays tennis,” before dishing out a perfect serve. The Jet had a rough start, but eventually got there. Ernie had a tough time aiming at the box to have a good serve.
After that, the guys tried forehand, backhand combo under Lee’s supervision, and by the end of it all, Chuck proved to be a much better tennis player than the rest of his crewmates. Maybe the tennis stars should be shown this footage and asked if they want to reconsider their decision.
