TNT Got Kenny Smith A Chair Lift After His Fall Running Up The Stairs

The 2024 NBA Playoffs have not been Kenny Smith’s finest when it comes to his halftime runs to the video board on TNT. After proclaiming on the first night he wouldn’t lose a race to the board in the playoffs, he promptly lost to both Shaq and Charles Barkley in back-to-back nights in the first week.

From there, Smith started getting jumpy and even fell going up the stairs, leading to plenty of jokes at his expense from the rest of the desk and people watching at home — which they naturally put up on the board to the delight of Charles, Shaq, and Ernie. At one point, Chuck offered to pay to put one of the chair lifts they put on staircases for old people, leading to lots of laughs.

That was a couple weeks ago, and in the meantime Kenny’s had a couple other near stumbles, so on Wednesday, with Charles and Shaq back after a night off, they unveiled their newest addition to Studio J: a chair lift to the board.

I’m not sure Charles Barkley has ever been happier than seeing them follow through on his joke, and Kenny was a good sport and hopped onto the lift and rode it part of the way up before realizing if he waited for it to get to the top they might run out of time at the half. While there’s the potential for TNT to lose the NBA in the current rights negotiations, we can’t allow that to happen. If nothing else, they won’t get enough use out of the chair lift they just installed.