The Indiana Pacers weren’t the only ones going home Monday night. It was also the final NBA broadcast on TNT for the 2012-13 season, and boy did the Inside the NBA crew go out in style.
The four members of this crew — Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal — are known for their comedic moments on air, which were on full display on Monday night.
Barkley got the ball rolling early, when he called Skip Bayless, “The idiot.”
The halftime show also produced a memorable moment when O’Neal called Barkley a “buttface.” Barkley took the jab well and the two began to giggle uncontrollably as Johnson tried to keep the show rolling and Smith looked on nervously.
After the Heat finished off the Pacers, 99-76, the crew was back at it on “Inside the NBA.” This time, Barkley made a Kazaam joke, and it was Johnson who joined Barkley for some giggling, while O’Neal and Smith didn’t.
Shaq was in the middle of describing the time when Michael Jordan told him about the importance of failure in a young player’s development after MJ’s Bulls beat O’Neal’s Magic in 1996, when Barkley interrupted him with this hilarious dig: “He didn’t tell you he wanted to be in Kazaam 2?”
Finally, the foursome ended their final show of the season with the always popular “Gone Fishin'” segment, which was an ode to the departing Pacers this time around. During this part of the show, it appeared that O’Neal caught a fish so large in the AmericanAirlines Arena that he toppled over in his chair. Luckily for him there were people there to catch him before he hit a railing, while the other three giggled some more (yes even Smith laughed this time), in what was a perfect ending to the show.
