Los Angeles Clippers guard Bones Hyland was introduced to the unique way Shaquille O’Neal pronounces his name during a podcast appearance. The 23-year-old was only recently traded to the Clippers and appeared on the Outta Pocket podcast around 9 months ago. The hosts of the podcast made sure that they brought up Shaq’s inability to pronounce his name in a typically hilarious fashion. The clip made its way to Instagram via Wildcardhoops.
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Hyland, as one would expect, reacted with surprise, claiming that he was sure the TNT analyst was only pretending to not be able to read such an easy name in order to be funny. The co-host went on to play the clip. O’Neal, who has previously shown a tendency to mispronounce even slightly confusing names, claimed during a TNT segment that he had no idea how to pronounce Hyland’s full name. When he was told the correct pronunciation by Ernie Johnson, the big man revealed that he was under the impression that the surname was pronounced as “Hill-end” instead.
Unsurprisingly, Hyland was shocked and claimed that he was sure Shaq was doing it on purpose. “Yo, there is no way. I am not gonna lie, I feel like they do it on purpose on TNT. They know how to pronounce certain people’s names. But I feel like they do it on purpose, this guy be funny,” he said.
Bones seemed confident of the fact that O’Neal simply wanted to come across as funny, as the co-host went on to explain how the Lakers legend tends to mess with people “he respects.” Hyland seemed to agree and commented that the TNT analysts were “definitely cool people.” Apart from Shaq, his long-term friend and co-worker Charles Barkley has also shown a similar inability to correctly pronounce names despite it being a basic requirement in their line of work.
Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley mispronounce names for fun?
There have been multiple incidents during the TNT broadcast when both Chuck and Shaq have stuttered with pronunciations rather genuinely. For example, the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard have been victims of Barkley and O’Neal’s name-butchering services several times in the past. Shaq, as a matter of fact, went ahead and pronounced Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s surname as “Gilchrist.”
While both the analysts look quite innocent while making the errors, there might as well be truth to Hyland’s claims. There is little doubt that both Shaq and Chuck seldom let go of opportunities to rib NBA personalities. This regular mispronunciation might as well be an extension of that.
