Chairs Break on TNT Set as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley Have a Hilarious Showdown

That’s what the Inside guys needed – professional fight training. “Fall Guy” mania has taken over the Ryan Gosling fanboys of Studio J. They brought in legit stunt professionals to improve their gimmicks as if the chair breaking, race to the board, and how-to-fall demos lacked quality in some way. After Charles Barkley received a genuine reason to fall without hurting yourself and Kenny “The Jet” Smith’s ‘matchstick knees’ struck again, the real showdown ensued between the resident cat and mouse.

Disclaimer: No humans were harmed in this segment. Just a few chairs and prides.

Remember that time in 2011 when a freshly retired Shaquille O’Neal arrived on TNT? Then Ernie Johnson plunked a chair on his back and tapped his head delicately with a glass bottle. They recreated their back alley fight in 2024 with extra sophistication and improvement. Presented with the opportunity to hit Shaq with a (fake) chair and a bottle, Chuck graciously volunteered to do the needful.

Shaq may have tackled Chuck on the falling stunt one too many times. Chuck was itching for revenge – though it took him an eternity to get the chair while Shaq waited – and broke the chair a bit too hard on Shaq’s back. Or so the Kazaam actor pretended. “That was too hard!” Shaq complained about Barkley’s chair-breaking strength. He even acted like he had a sore back.

Chuck was so cheeky that he kicked off another chair, so Shaq had nowhere to sit. Well past that decade-old brawl, Ernie Johnson defended his friend by breaking the bottle on Chuckster’s head. You’d think that would end the brawl. But a lot of chairs met their end tonight.

Fall Guys take over Shaquille O’Neal and Co.!

Kenny Smith is stealing Gosling’s ‘Fall Guy’ title with his self-designed, unintentional stunts. His dignity hasn’t recovered from the solo race to the board that he didn’t even complete because he tripped. He was supposed to have a cool stunt-coordinated fight scene today, which got ruined when he fell down again.

Kenny got his hallmark moment finally when he successfully broke a bottle on a stuntman. Then he was running for his life because the Big Aristotle came after him with a chair. What no one knew was that it was a fake-out. The real target was behind Kenny, thinking he was spared till Shaq swung. The hit seemed so hard that Chuck lost his balance and dropped into the stunt mattresses. Moreover, Shaq tackled him again.

Will this training improve the level of danger and thrills on Inside the NBA? Not by a long shot. But it certainly will keep this Emmy-winning show funny.