“That Was Stupid”: Charles Barkley & Ernie Johnson Refuse to Give Their TNT Brother Due Credit

In 2020, Inside the NBA got a podcast spinoff, The Steam Room. Half of the Inside Crew, Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson lead this one. But the origins go back to 2016 and Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny “The Jet” Smith have a part in it. Does that mean Chuck and Ernie will share the credit? Four years into The Steam Room and that’s not happening anytime soon.

The podcast has a segment where callers ask questions to Sir Charles and The Godfather. This week, one caller asked, “Have you ever thought about giving Shaq credit for the Steam Room? And him going to Kenny saying, ‘Ask Charles where he got the bracelet from?’ on TV at that. So if Shaq never asked that question, y’all will never have this podcast.” 

Barkley and Johnson were hilariously stoic at the very mention of sharing credit. They still graciously waited to hear the whole question before Ernie sarcastically said, “Yeah that’s what we need, to give Kenny and Shaq some more credit.”

Barkley, who might be salty about being the butt of this running joke, said, “First of all, that was stupid on my part.” Ernie was using the gift of hindsight to recommend, “We just would’ve have called it something else. We just happened to call… We would’ve had a podcast.” 

That’s true. A Chuck and Ernie podcast spinoff was a longtime coming. But for that name, Barkley said, “We’re not giving Shaq and Kenny no credit.” Put that on Chuck’s coffee mug. But what is this bracelet incident that Barkley is feeling stupid about?

The origins of The Steam Room

The Inside the NBA lore is rife with running jokes. None, though, can beat ‘the bracelet.’ During an April 2016 broadcast, Kenny, prodded by O’Neal, asked Barkley about the stretchy bracelet on his wrist. To his ‘credit,’ Chuck was honest about the dubious origins. “I got this bracelet from a guy in the steam room back in Arizona.” 

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Fair warning, Chuck had no idea who this guy was. He just liked the bracelet he had on. After they came out and got dressed, the mystery guy gifted him the bracelet. Narrating that incident had Shaq, Ernie, and Kenny close to falling off their chairs. Kenny was asking the important questions – “Towels on or off?” Towels were on.

Chuck even made Shaq do a real spit-take when he gave the mystery bracelet guy a shout-out. This isn’t even the only steam room shenanigans Chuck has gotten into. And Shaq has provoked those stories out of him all the time. Does that mean Shaq and Kenny deserve credit for The Steam Room?

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