Charles Barkley Slams Shaq For Showing Up Late To Work: ‘What Kind of Dummy Misses the First Night of the Playoffs?’

The NBA Play-In Tournament has been a prominent topic of discussion for weeks. As a newly implemented wrinkle for the NBA Playoffs, the tournament was both highly anticipated and scrutinized in most basketball circles.

Players, coaches, fans, and broadcasters had the tournament’s start date and time circled on their calendar for weeks. But not Shaquille O’Neal.

Despite covering the games for TNT, Shaq wasn’t on set when the Inside the NBA crew went on-air Tuesday night, with the Big Fella claiming he misread the schedule. Naturally, Shaq was roasted by his TNT co-stars, with Charles Barkley leading the charge.

“What kind of dummy misses the first night of the playoffs?” Barkley asked while Kenny Smith attempted to FaceTime Shaq.

O’Neal strolled into the studio a couple minutes late, attempting to duck the camera and slide into his seat on set. But at 7’ 2” and well over 300lbs, it’s nearly impossible to sneak anywhere.

“You can’t be that big and sneak,” Barkley added.

“I apologize. I read my schedule wrong. I thought it said 6:30,” Shaq explained.

Oddly enough, this wasn’t the first time the four-time NBA champion arrived late for a prominent TNT broadcast. Last summer, as the NBA restarted its season following a four-month long COVID-19 induced layoff, Shaq was noticeably missing as the TNT crew welcomed back basketball fans.

Update: @SHAQ finally arrived to Studio J ? pic.twitter.com/J14rFVLzH8

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 30, 2020

O’Neal similarly tried, and failed, to sneak on set when he arrived late last July. Luckily, there’s no broadcast crew in sports better equipped to handle a missing participant than Turner’s Hall-of-Fame team on Inside the NBA.

Watch above via TNT

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