Chris B. Haynes recycles Charles Barkley joke with Shaq

Replicating Charles Barkley is not an easy thing to do. In fact, it’s just about impossible. TNT’s Chris Haynes learned that during Thursday’s episode of Inside the NBA.

While TNT’s coverage of NBA All-Star weekend was largely met with mixed reviews, Barkley was generally met with positive reviews. As Barkley often does, he proved that he can take jokes and dish them out. One of those jokes must have resonated with Haynes, who tried his own luck with the same joke on Thursday.

Haynes gestured to his earpiece, saying, “Hold up. Somebody said something in my ear.” After a few seconds, he spoke to Shaquille O’Neal. “Wow, Shaq. You wouldn’t believe who just asked about you. You know who just asked about you, Shaq?”

“Who,” Shaq replied.

“Nobody,” Haynes said.

"You know who just asked about you, Shaq?" – Chris Haynes

"Who?" – Shaq

"Nobody." – Haynes pic.twitter.com/QRBGb41Iew

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 23, 2024

If that joke sounded familiar to you, there’s a reason for that. During Sunday’s All-Star game, Barkley used the same joke with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green.

Charles Barkley used the same joke on Draymond Green during the NBA All-Star Game altcast. pic.twitter.com/OIKwQS059A

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 23, 2024

O’Neal landed a solid comeback on Haynes, telling him, “Have fun, because you’re about to be working for ESPN Deportes.”

Haynes’ punchline might have landed a little better if we hadn’t heard the same joke on the same network less than a week earlier. That said, if you’re going to steal material, you might as well steal from the best. So, we can’t completely blame Haynes for going into Barkley’s bag of tricks.

[Photo Credit: TNT]