Over the last five years of my life, I was only excited to watch national broadcasted NBA games on TNT, headlined by Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Something. Barkley was entertaining, a mixture of stupid comments with valid points; Kenny the more soft-spoken, analytical second-banana, and finally Ernie, the coordinator of it all. NBA Thursday nights on TNT blew ESPN and ABC half-time and post-game shows out of the water. I enjoyed watching the halftime shows and Inside The NBA even more than watching the games themselves; I recorded every one on my DVR, something I would never consider doing for any other team of analysts. Magic Johnson? Fucking kill me. Jalen Rose? Debatably the worst. The list goes on: John Barry, Michael Wilbon, Chris Broussard. They all are terrible. I don't know how the duo of Barkley and Kenny separated themselves from the rest but they certainly did, becoming an Emmy award winning show in the process. Now they have Shaq, who cannot speak English and obviously reads from a TelePrompTer because he has nothing on his mind except dominating Chuck on camera. Chuck is not having as much fun with Shaq and therefore we are not having as much fun. Shaq literally just mumbles inside jokes the whole time and we only laugh because everyone else is, except for Chuck who is usually the butt of the joke. Now with Charles getting sick of being in the studio he has been the color analyst during live games, which has translated well. Hopefully Barkley can keep taking Shaq's shit and live out his contract, and we know that Shaq won't stop being a dick (see Dwight Howard). This article has been brewing in my mind for a while, always feeling the tension and awkwardness in the studio every Thursday night, but tonight really capped it off. Charles was in Phoenix calling the game and the studio was making fun of him the entire night (granted, Barkley really did look like he was in beauty pageant) and Chuck wasn't even there to defend himself. Instead of it usually just being Shaq, Ernie and Kenny were joining in tonight like they've had a long running vendetta against Chuck and finally have the balls to act on it with big bad Shaquille behind them. Maybe the public likes Shaq better but I don't, and never will. Chuck has a charm, charisma and insightfulness (did I really just type that?) that Shaq will never have. Maybe Inside The NBA will be fine without Chuck when he's fully gone, but I don't think it will be nearly as good. It's sad to see the team I've watched over my years to slowly be dismantled but every good run eventually comes to an end. And it won't be pretty. Thanks, Shaq.
P.S. I love it when Chris Webber is in the studio.
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