We all know that our man Shaq has no trouble expressing himself.. Not in business, and especially not when it comes to his role as an NBA commentator on the TNT network with his friends on Inside the NBA.
Well, just this week (as of this posting), the big man was at it again, adding – shall we say? – unusual words of wisdom to back up his buddy and fellow broadcaster Charles Barkley.
The two – along with Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson and fellow analyst Kenny Smith – were breaking down the play-in tournament game featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Seems like each and every broadcast of Inside the NBA provides some viral-worthy gem of pictures or words, and this show did not disappoint. During the halftime program, Barkley kicked things off, talking about his frustration over the T-wolves playing style, going as far as calling Minnesota a “dumb team.”
Turns out Sir Charles had good insight into the way the game would go. Even though the Timberwolves were leading by double digits in the third quarter, they ended up losing to LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers in a pretty exciting overtime contest.
In the postgame analysis, O’Neal was asked how (he believed) the Lakers were able to keep the game close and then eventually win in OT. The big man pulled out a big word, pointed to what he called the “dismantilization” of Minnesota, and the reason the Lakers were able to come back and win in overtime.
Wait…what? The what? Let us save you the trip to the library. We checked. There’s no word “dismantilization” in the dictionary, Webster’s or any other. Just what does it mean, then? Well, not surprisingly, Shaq got an earful from his co-hosts.
In fact, the rest of the crew – Johnson, Barkley and Smith all called out the big man, wondering what the heck he was saying. Even Barkley – who admits he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed – said he knew that wasn’t a word. As usual, Shaq was unflappable. “First of all, it’s a word because I said it. How bout that?”
You know, don’t you, that O’Neal holds a doctorate in Education degree. Yes, we know it’s not a Ph.D., like the ones given to medical doctors and those sorts of people. But really folks, we should be calling him Doctor O’Neal! So the guy is pretty good with language and words.
Here at the offices of the ShaqFu Radio blog, we’re guessing the big man put together his own word and rolled it out on us on live TV just to play with us a little bit. We laughed, just like the rest of the TNT crew. Shaq smiled about it, too.
So, what’s next for the big man? We don’t know. Nobody does. But that’s what makes Inside the NBA the must-watch sports TV show that it is, and what (among other things) that makes our man Shaq such an interesting character.
So… will we be seeing “dismantilization” in the dictionary some day? Probably not, but who knows? Maybe it’ll catch on.