While the NBA on TNT’s postgame show on Tuesday night is not at the level of Inside The NBA, the last couple of weeks have been entertaining to say the least.
This week, Shaquille O’Neal brought up to Adam Lefkoe, Dwyane Wade, and Candace Parker that the WNBA should lower the rim so that they could dunk like the NBA players. Let’s just say Parker, a member of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, wasn’t too thrilled about that comment.
This isn’t the first time we saw Parker react to a comment from O’Neal on-air recently. Two weeks ago, Parker was telling Shaq about how the pick-and-roll game has changed in the NBA.
Despite all the visual reactions that Parker seems to make to what O’Neal says on the show, she told Michael Pina of Sports Illustrated in an interview earlier this week that she just views it as talking basketball and doesn’t view those debates as anything out of the ordinary.
“I feel so lucky to do my job in the sense that, you know, we’re all players, all discussing different strategies, or different philosophies of the game, and everybody’s entitled to their opinion. Everybody’s confident in themselves that they’re not going to take it the wrong way. And so, just as Shaq comes at me and challenges me, I feel confident in my preparation, and my knowledge.”
She also looks at her conversations with O’Neal and appreciates that it is not viewed as Shaq talking to a WNBA player and that it is two basketball analysts having a conversation.
“I think it goes to the environment and the culture that we have, like, the producer can talk and tell off so and so and tell them how they feel and vice versa and that’s just what it is. It’s not like Shaq, the four-time champion Hall of Famer versus Candace, women’s basketball player.”
While it is not the Charles Barkley vs. Shaquille O’Neal debates you see on Inside The NBA, Shaq debating Parker on anything basketball is becoming can’t miss TV to seeing what he will say next. At the very least, Parker can bring up the clips of her, O’Neal, and Lefkoe shooting threes at halftime (whether the video was edited or not):
Beginning this weekend, Parker will be a part of Turner’s NCAA Tournament coverage as she will be an analyst in the Atlanta studios with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith. Parker, who will be playing for the Chicago Sky in 2021, has been an analyst for Turner’s NCAA Tournament coverage since 2018.
