Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith had contempt for one another before they started working together on Inside The NBA and later became friends in real life. Shaq’s amusing antics with Smith’s three-year-old son were the source of their mutual hate. The TNT team saw some retro tape from May 2004 that made things plain before to Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks.
In the video, which was a replay of a previous post-game TNT show, Smith clarified why he thought O’Neal was “stealing” his son Kenny Smith Jr. from school. According to the Jet itself,
“[Shaq’s] daughter and my son were in the same class. He used to pick up my son without telling me. So we had a problem from the beginning right there. I was like, ‘Yo, you can’t pick up my son, take him to get a haircut or whatever without me knowing.’ How are you gonna do that? So that’s where it all started.”
It took Shaq 20 years to understand why Kenny used to criticize him 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/vSIdmRskuI
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 25, 2024
Smith became enraged by O’Neal’s “kidnappings,” and he vented his resentment by attacking the All-Star player for the Los Angeles Lakers on Inside The NBA. The analyst’s criticism was met with disapproval by the center. This would therefore make him feel even more contempt for the former Rockets guard.
Because of this, Shaq frequently said that Smith wasn’t on the same level as him and made fun of the two-time NBA champion by joking that he “sweeps the floor” in the TNT studio. It’s hard to believe that the two were so horrified by one another in the past, given how friendly they are now.
Shaq, though, had a unique viewpoint on how modern players feel about what they say in the studio thanks to Smith’s critique.
