The NBA on TNT show is arguably one of the best basketball show ever. The legendary show has won multiple Emmys and is considered to be the best. And the reason for that is the 4 guys- Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal. But that wasn’t always the case as Shaq had a hard time getting adjusted to them and a Rockets legend had to set him straight.

After Shaq retired in 2011, he joined the Turner Sports Network as an analyst. In his entire career, Shaq has always been the most dominant player and maybe the most important one. So when he went to TNT, it was hard for him to not be the number 1 option anymore. So he struggled for a few months when he joined.

Kenny Smith says Shaquille O’Neal became better after he talked to him

Kenny, who has been on the show for a long time, was recently on the All the Smoke podcast. He was asked about the NBA on TNT and its success over the years. He was asked what makes the show different from others. Kenny said that they are the only show that listens. And the guys have great chemistry and are themselves all the time. But not all of them were great listeners at first. Kenny said Shaq was terrible at it.

Kenny says two things happened which made Shaq realize his mistakes and made him great. He adds,” I went to him first… The stories you say in the green room are bananas. The stuff you saying about Kobe… You got to bring that…”

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“The other thing is like this is the first time in your life that you ain’t the most dominant player. First time. Like we might be better than you at this.” 

Another incident was Shaq was pampered too much by the producers and he was not paying full attention. Then he messed up on TV and his crew called him out. And then he realized his mistakes and started giving it his all.

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That is when the show took off and became the best on TV. All it needed was Shaq to hear some harsh words from Kenny and Co.