The board at Studio J went through a lot last night. Shaq beat it up and Kenny had to do a distorted halftime report. Chuck was depressed that Shaq broke another thing, then Ernie hurt it further, and at some point, the crew managed to fix it. If you were expecting a large bandaid on the screen when Inside the NBA returned, it’s not the case. Doesn’t mean the crew would take any chances! Kenny “The Jet” Smith didn’t just race to the board. He defended it from Shaquille O’Neal’s aggressive ways.

And in tonight’s rundown of the NBA Cup quarterfinals, Shaq was poised for the race to the board. He turned in his seat and faced the back, ready to launch when Kenny least expected it. But the Rockets legend who swept Shaq in the finals three decades ago was not going to let his guard down.

Disregarding Ernie trying to lay out Jalen Green’s stats, Kenny told Shaq, “No, no, you don’t… you broke the TV last night.” The thing about telling the 7-foot self-proclaimed ‘Big Kid’ no is that he gets stubborn. And Shaq challenged, “You think I’m gonna break it again?” 

That’s a rhetorical question, but yeah, everyone is afraid the former 4x champion would break the screen again. That’s why Kenny had to issue an ultimatum. “You’re not allowed to run tonight. You’re not allowed.” 

If Kenny had taken a similar charge back in 1993, those backboards would’ve survived Shaq’s attacks!

But ‘Shaq Fu’ was not going to give in.

He took some mean pleasure, making Smith restless to the point that he was not paying attention to Ernie. The cheeky big man even posed like he was about to break into a run. So to save his halftime report, Kenny called out Jalen Green’s inconsistency and dashed to the board.

He even made sure to touch it (gently, don’t want to traumatize the poor board any further!) so Shaq can’t invalidate it. After yesterday’s chaos, Kenny Smith finally got to do a clear halftime report for the NBA Cup quarterfinals.

Shaquille O’Neal won’t be racing the board anytime soon

Last week, 52-year-old Shaquille O’Neal proved he could still dunk and left the rim trembling. The rim survived, but the ‘Big Aristotle’ was being his MDE self in Studio J this week. He felt extra competitive on the first night of the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday that he went overboard in the Race to the Board.

When Jalen Rose was subbing in for Kenny last week, O’Neal invalidated the race because Rose didn’t touch the board. Of course, the ex-3x Finals MVP wouldn’t make that mistake himself, leaving no room for doubt when he slammed that 12-inch palm flat on the screen. He instantly distorted the display and didn’t even know it during his cool no-look walk-off.

Shaq hit it about four times more to fix it the old-school way, but unfortunately, like Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, he wasn’t exactly “machine compatible” enough to get it back to its original form.

“We can’t have nothing nice with you around here, Shrek,” Charles Barkley told Shaq, poking fun at his larger-than-life persona with a playful nod to the lovable ogre’s clumsy yet endearing nature. And Kenny had already issued his ban yesterday when he told Shaq, “No more races to the board for you.”

The “Big brain on bread” Ernie Johnson researched ways to fix it only to throw a tiny basketball at it and make it a lot worse. It ultimately fell on TNT’s technicians to restore order and pixels on Inside the NBA.

And it does seem like Shaq’s scared straight of doing any further damage, despite his childish taunts. ‘Shaqovic’ definitely didn’t look keen on racing, but he sure did love scaring Kenny over it.