Thursday night’s edition of Inside the NBA was one of the all-around more entertaining shows of the season, and that’s not just counting John Wall’s thrilling antics to seal the Wizards’ win over the sad, crumbling Knicks. Randy Moss stopped by Kevin Garnett’s Area 21 to talk hoops and a lot of trash, and he even allowed Shaq to potentially injure his colleague and verbal sparring partner Charles Barkley. Moss also revealed that he believes that, in his athletic prime, he could have averaged 20+ ppg in the NBA (and at least 10 today), and he topped it all off by taking a shot (pun intended) at Shaq’s free throw skills, or lack thereof. Of course, The Big John Wick later got his revenge by nailing a half-court shot and break dancing.
Again, a thoroughly dumb, ridiculous, hilarious, and entertaining episode. But it wasn’t all about Moss, as the only topic that matters today is obviously the NBA All-Star Game starters, and especially the snub of Russell Westbrook, who is averaging a triple-double more than halfway through the season. Garnett called it the biggest snub in league history, and Moss also shared his outrage over this strange development. The most confused people of all, though, are Shaq and Barkley, who still don’t even really know how the voting process works.
That’s okay, it’s not as simple as the fans picking their favorite players anymore, and most of us could use a little math lesson. That’s where Ernie Johnson stepped in and tried to help break it all down a little.
The best part of Johnson announcing the starters was Barkley offering his opinion on each player and Johnson quickly reminding him to shut up. This crew, as a whole, is so perfect sometimes that it makes other sports’ analysts and even other networks’ NBA teams seem terrible in comparison. But that’s another debate to embrace for another day.
Once the Eastern Conference starters were named, that’s when the real fireworks began between Shaq and Barkley.
Barkley believes that the media got it right, and that Isaiah Thomas should be starting over Kyrie Irving in the East, but Shaq thinks the system should have never changed. “All these people changing the rules for what,” he asked Johnson, before cutting off his colleague’s answer. “Keep it the way it was, Ernie. The fans. Let the fans vote.”
“The fans get it wrong every single time,” Barkley interjected, while popcorn kernels exploded in my microwave. Barkley’s biggest case was Thomas’s snub, but Shaq made a very, very strong case for his argument when he said, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.” Really makes you think.
Ultimately, though, this is a win-win situation for the NBA in terms of how much people are talking about an exhibition game that really only means something to Drake. And it might be a loss for guys like Thomas and Westbrook, but knowing them, they’re probably just going to use this to punish their opponents a hell of a lot more.
