Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson Jr., no stranger to winning awards, earned his biggest honor yet Tuesday night when he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Johnson’s shining moment was made even sweeter by the fact his three Inside the NBA analysts and cast mates, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, unexpectedly showed up to present his award.
Johnson loved their guest appearance.
Shaq, Kenny & Chuck showed up to present Ernie with his Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame award 👏 pic.twitter.com/Hio5TaHeZr
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) December 13, 2023
The moment was funny and touching, but it was also clearly scripted. That’s ironic, because Johnson believes one of the secrets to Inside the NBA’s success is the fact it’s completely unscripted.
The 67-year-old broadcasting legend appeared on 92.9 The Game‘s The Steakhouse Friday and shared secrets of the popular TNT/Warner Bros. Discovery Sports show.
It all starts with the fact that Barkley, O’Neal and Smith literally don’t know what’s coming.
“We have an unrehearsed, unscripted show [where] these guys don’t go to the production meetings; they’re not invited,” Johnson said (via BarrettSportsMedia). “We don’t want them to know what we have cooked up that night, and sometimes it’s the things that we talk about in the production meeting that carry the night, but a lot of times it really [is] something that happens.”
Inside the NBA is funny, informative, and it often delivers the unexpected. Barkley and O’Neal are both over-the-top characters who are always entertaining, but even the more-reserved Smith can get crazy on occasion, as he did in 2022, when he knocked O’Neal into a Christmas tree as the two raced to the board.
KENNY LAUNCHED SHAQ INTO THE TREE 🎄💀 pic.twitter.com/WBltT8jflx
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) December 7, 2022
The Steakhouse‘s Stephen “Steak” Shapiro asked Johnson what drives that chemistry between everyone on the set.
“I think the fact that nobody’s really tried to make the show about themselves,” Johnson said. “It just kind of happens from one night to the next that, ‘Oh, everybody’s talking about what Shaq did,’ or, ‘Charles said this,’ [or], ‘Kenny said that.’ That, I think, [has] been the real key.”
Johnson has been hosting Inside the NBA since the 1990-91 season, the show’s second year. That’s an eternity in sports broadcasting, and Johnson said that longevity gives the cast confidence, which helps the show.
“There’s always somebody in TV who says, ‘No, I’ve got a better idea. I think these guys work,'” Johnson said. “No, [Warner Bros. Discovery Sports has] just kind of left us alone and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a good thing going on there with Inside,’ and so they can scratch that off their list of worries. ‘Okay, let those guys do their thing,’ and that is really — I can’t express how great that makes us feel, and I think we try to repay their loyalty to us with a product night-in, night-out that folks enjoy.”
[BarrettSportsMedia.com, Photo Credit: Inside the NBA, TNT]
