Charles Barkley was at a loss for words after listening to Shaquille O’Neal rave about how much he respects him as a former contemporary, a colleague, and a friend.
Charles and Shaq are both former NBA superstars who now work for TNT and always seem to be at odds with each other. Sometimes, it even appears they could get into a fistfight, but there’s mutual love and respect deep down, under all of the jokes, squabbles, and insults.
That was apparent on Sunday night when the pair appeared as part of a panel for NBA Finals coverage.
Shaq spoke of Charles in glowing terms, defending his colleague after it was suggested that he should not become a coach, then sharing that their moms were close friends back in the day and he didn’t even know about it.
“His mom and my mom had the sweetest friendship, and I didn’t even know,” the former Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat star explained. “I used to hate Charles. We were getting ready to get into a fight, and before I could get to the locker room and put my clothes on to go down to the locker room and see him, I get a call from his mother… who said ‘don’t you hit my boy’ and I was like ‘who is this?’”
Shaq would go on to admit that he has love for Barkley, who could only stare as his on-air rival spoke about their friendship in heartwarming fashion.
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“We fight, we argue,” O’Neal added. “I have little brothers, I have teammates, Grant [Hill] has seen me choke one of my teammates out. It’s part of love.”
O’Neal and Barkley are undoubtedly the most entertaining duo on sports television at the moment. But it was nice to see Shaq get all serious and pay compliments to his longtime coworker.
