WATCH: Charles Barkley Uses Kenny Smith as Human Shield to Protect Himself from Shaquille O’Neal in Dodgeball

Ernie Johnson hosts a recurring segment on ‘Inside the NBA’ titled “EJ’s Neat-O Stat of the Night”. As they often do, the crew took the bit in a hilarious direction last night, prompting a dodgeball fight between Hall of Famers.

Kia’s new car, the Telluride X-Line ‘Nightfall’ edition, was parked behind the analysts at Studio J. After sufficiently hyping up the vehicle, Ernie segued into the crux of the segment. “Not only does it have all of that, take a look inside. See, we’ve loaded this thing with mini-basketballs,” EJ began.

“We’ve had the fans here tonight taking guesses at how many basketballs were in there. How many do you think?” the Broadcasting Hall of Famer asked his co-hosts.

Confident as ever, Dr. Shaquille O’Neal was the first to answer. “678,” the four-time NBA champion said. Kenny Smith went in the opposite direction with his estimate. “I say 403,” ‘The Jet’ guessed with one hand inside the car.

Charles Barkley was closely inspecting the vehicle from all sides as he calculated his answer. “What you say Shaq?,” he paused. Recalling O’Neal’s answer, Barkley decided that his co-hosts had to be wrong and slid his number between their estimations. “525,” the 1993 NBA MVP declared.

Unfortunately, none of the Hall of Famers came remotely close the answer. Ernie revealed that the car could actually fit 893 mini-basketballs, much to the surprise of his team. Technically, Shaq’s guess came the closest, but that victory wouldn’t be the high note of the segment.

Prompted by Johnson, Sir Charles popped the trunk of the car as a barrage of mini-basketballs poured onto the stage at Studio J. “Balls for everybody,” O’Neal quipped as the ‘Inside Guys’ began throwing the basketballs into the crowd.

It didn’t take long for the Chuckster to take advantage of the chaos as he hurled a few of the balls in O’Neal’s direction. Fearing retaliation, Barkley took cover behind his fellow Hall of Famer, Kenny Smith. He grabbed the two-time NBA champion and used his body as a shield against the Diesel.

Unbothered, Shaq hurled several mini-basketballs at the defenseless Smith before the latter finally managed to slither away from Chuck’s grip.

Clearly, the crew are already in celebration mode as the NBA takes a pause for the All-Star Weekend. TNT’s resident Hall of Famers will have their hands full in San Francisco as Kenny, Shaq and Charles drafted the three All-Star teams that will compete on Sunday night.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see O’Neal participate in Saturday’s dunk contest either, as his favorite dunker gears up for a potential three-peat.