In a mix between “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” and “watch out for that gigantic man heading in this direction,” former NBA star and current analyst Shaquille O’Neal recently did his part to get rid of some of the plant life on TNT’s NBA halftime show. How? By slamming into it with his massive body. Check out the awesome gaff below.
Fans of TNT’s basketball coverage know that Shaq has a good time with co-hosts Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and Charles “I’ll say any damned thing” Barkley, and this was one bit of improvised fun that got the best of Shaq’s center of balance. A discussion about defense gets sidetracked when Shaq takes off, and Smith interrupts himself to chase the 7’1” behemoth down, perhaps inadvertently knocking him into the set’s Christmas tree, which is luckily tall enough to take the blow without getting crumpled into a pine-ornament pancake. Where’s Clark Griswold when you need something equally stupid happening?
Shaq gets up, probably less embarrassed than someone who isn’t extremely wealthy bumbling things, and immediately declares war on Smith, who laughingly continues saying it was all an accident. Considering Shaq can use Smith as a toothpick, I’m guessing that’s the truth. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the cage match to see what happens.
Speaking of a cage match, some bright mind on the Internet immediately added a bit of wrestling commentator Jim Ross’ words to Shaq’s crash landing, as heard below. It’s at least a million times better with Ross and crowd noise.
It all seems like the kind of thing that would end up making its way to Shaq’s TruTV series Upload with Shaquille O’Neal. But it’s still not the most embarrassing thing Shaq has ever done…
You can next find the entire TNT NBA crew when the Houston Rockets head to New York on Thursday, January 8, 2015.
