Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley have been entertaining NBA audiences on “Inside the NBA” on TNT together for over a decade.
And on Thursday night, O’Neal got his own entertainment when Barkley demonstrated how NBA players should fall to avoid injury.
The TV crew talked about Zion Williamson leaving the Pelicans’ game against the Kings and heading to the locker room with an apparent wrist injury.
On the “Inside the NBA” halftime show, Barkley demonstrated how Williamson should have fallen so he could avoid injury, and O’Neal couldn’t keep it together.
“You don’t try to catch yourself,” Barkley said.
Barkley said you should keep your hands up and not catch yourself, and O’Neal thought the demonstration itself was just humorous, and he could not stop laughing.
After all the laughs, Barkley added: “Guys at home, don’t be stupid. Your body is too much, it’s got too much force.”
“Can I see that in slow motion?” O’Neal asked, and the TNT crew obliged.
Fortunately for New Orleans, Williamson was able to return to the game.
His 31 points helped lead the Pelicans to an important win over the Kings.
The Pelicans’ 135-123 victory kept them a game ahead of the Suns for the sixth seed in the Western Conference.
Phoenix owns the tiebreaker between the two, meaning if there is a tie, the Suns would jump to the sixth seed, and New Orleans would have to play in the Western Conference’s play-in tournament.