The archives are full of salacious clips from Inside the NBA, but there’s one Charles Barkley clip that Kenny Smith desperately hopes to never see again.
Inside the NBA celebrated Earth Day throughout their Monday broadcast. The celebrations featured Barkley being forced to eat a salad, Shaq suffering the aftereffects of a special tea, and a montage of Earth Day related clips from the NBA on TNT crew.
The montage closed with a clip of Barkley being attacked by a water pistol-wielding Shaquille O’Neal. And after watching Barkley sit back with his mouth open while being repeatedly sprayed by Shaq, Smith decided he didn’t need to see it again.
“Giving this guy a water gun was one of the worst decisions.” pic.twitter.com/Y55nzz9CR9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 23, 2024
“We gotta eliminate that last shot from the catalog,” Smith pleaded as Inside the NBA proceeded to play the clip again and again and again and again. “No! We gotta eliminate that last shot, man, from the history of the archives. That shot can no longer be there.”
“Giving this guy a water gun was one of the worst decisions,” Barkley lamented.
That decision occurred in 2019, when the Inside the NBA crew celebrated Dyngus Day, which traditionally features men dousing women with water, prompting Shaq to douse Barkley with a Super Soaker.
“That was you squirting?” Smith asked after Barkley griped about Shaq having a water gun. “That was you, Shaq? That was you squirting the water gun?”
Shaq laughed hysterically while Ernie Johnson held his ears in an attempt to block out Smith subtly turning this into an edition of Inside the NBA After Dark.
A belated happy Earth Day, everybody. And happy NBA Playoffs, enjoy the final two months of Shaq, Barkley, Kenny and Ernie on your TV screen this basketball season.

About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com
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