During last night’s postgame segment on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley burst into laughter while discussing Lakers player Anthony Davis exiting the court in a wheelchair after sustaining a head injury in a game against the Warriors. The laughter caused a delay in the conversation about the game. Davis was accidentally struck in the face by the arm of Warriors’ Kevon Looney while fighting for a rebound in the fourth quarter. He was ruled out of the game due to the head injury and taken for further medical evaluation.
Despite Johnson’s attempts to find out the reason for their laughter, Shaq and Barkley gave conflicting explanations, with Shaq claiming he was laughing at Barkley and Barkley suggesting Shaq was crumbling up paper. The laughter continued, and even O’Neal appeared to wipe away tears. Eventually, the show moved on, and Barkley was able to provide some serious analysis.
The internet is once again mad over a JOKE! I get it, head injuries are not a joke, but this is hilarious. If this happened to any other player, there would be no story. This is only a story because Anthony Davis is hurt more than any other player. He falls over and he’s hurt. He gets a papercut and he’s out for 4 games. I really think Shaq and Charles are the only ones that are allowed to make these jokes on National TV because they have been there. Shaq was a dog back in the day and it’s funny to think how Anthony Davis would fair against him.
Let’s be real though, using a wheelchair is funny. TNT is the only show on cable worth watching now because they actually do stuff like this instead of being PC all the time. Let’s not act like ESPN didn’t have a segment once upon a time called “Jacked Up” that highlighted hard hits that often ended with injuries. Different times.
