Charles Barkley’s surprising Jay-Z quip made Shaq walk off set

Even Charles Barkley knows now might not be the best time to be joking about Jay-Z, although that didn’t really stop him.

During the final hour of Inside the NBA on Tuesday night, Kenny Smith started trash-talking Stephen A. Smith while previewing their upcoming free throw shooting contest. The contest will take place on TNT’s Emirates NBA Cup semifinal pregame show Saturday in Las Vegas.

As Barkley and Shaq urged him to be more respectful of the competition, Kenny Smith reached for an analogy to defend his confidence and said, “Do you think Jay-Z or, or, or…”

Kenny: “You think Jay Z or…”
Chuck: “Probably not a good time right now” pic.twitter.com/Lk4Bx4HpEs

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) December 11, 2024

“Probably not a good time right now,” Barkley jumped in with a smile as Smith began to stutter. “Too soon Kenny.”

“You’re silly, man,” Smith said while shaking his head.

Ernie Johnson similarly laughed at the awkward quip, while Shaq hilariously decided the best course of action was to remove himself from the situation by walking off the set. The best reaction, however, was from someone off-camera, whose shrieks of laughter made it on-air.

The elephant in the room here is the fact that Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was recently named in an amended lawsuit originally filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs and accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000. Carter has since denied the accusations, dismissing it as a “blackmail attempt.”

So yeah, like Barkley said, probably not a good time for a Jay-Z reference.

[Inside the NBA]