Ernie Johnson was a guest on Dukes & Bell Friday ahead of the NBA’s All-Star Game in Cleveland. The Atlanta sports talk hosts opened the interview by asking Johnson about the All-Star Game Draft last week.
Mike Bell told Johnson that it was the perfect example of why TNT’s Inside the NBA works so well. He asked Johnson if needling Kevin Durant about not picking James Harden was some of the most fun he had on set.
“It’s just fun to kind of poke and prod a little bit and see how much fun these guys want to have,” Johnson said of talking to players.
James Harden had been traded from the Nets to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the day. Harden’s relationships on the team, including with Durant, had reportedly soured. Last year, Durant chose Harden as his first bench player. This year, Durant’s attitude was very different.
Ernie Johnson gave his Inside the NBA castmates credit for being able to make things awkward for Durant and fun for the audience in that moment.
“That’s the great thing about having Chuck and Shaq and Kenny in there too,” he told Dukes & Bell. “They’re gonna just poke the needle a little bit. That was a fun moment. That’s for sure.”
Johnson told the 92.9 The Game afternoon duo that that moment was a microcosm of the larger relationship TNT has with the NBA. The league trusts he, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith to put on a great show.
“The only thing they tell us is ‘Hey have some fun. You guys do what you do,’” he said. “They love any kind of banter we have, so if we can joke with these guys and make it as entertaining as we can, nobody wants a dry ‘Kevin?’ ‘I got him.’ ‘Okay LeBron, it’s your turn.’ ‘I’ve got him.’ You need some of that ribbing from our side of it to kind of move things along. They’re great about that. From our side of it, we’ve been together for so long they can say ‘just do what you guys do’ and they take the good with the bad. That’s a good thing to have.”
