Kenny Smith can double dip with Inside the NBA and NBA Countdown on ESPN, as long as he’s prepared to feel the wrath of Shaquille O’Neal.
ESPN might be making good on their promise to not interfere with Inside the NBA. But the way O’Neal is acting, Kenny Smith embracing ESPN and Countdown might be enough to cause an unexpected rift over at Inside the NBA.
Charles Barkley has insisted he won’t work any harder than he has to since Inside the NBA joined ESPN. But with a smaller salary and less endorsement deals than Barkley and Shaq, Smith appeared more willing to take advantage of the opportunities ESPN can offer. And those opportunities began to kick in last week, when Smith made his NBA Countdown debut after it was announced he reached a multi-year deal to appear on ESPN programming.
ESPN probably loved seeing Smith on Countdown. But when the band got back together Wednesday night on Inside the NBA, Shaq seemed less than thrilled.
“I watch that show, they never laugh. You come over there with dumbass jokes and I heard them laughing. Do not take our secret sauce to other shows.” – Shaq didn’t love seeing Kenny Smith on Countdown pic.twitter.com/00lPLXbLTY
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 13, 2025
“Hey Kenny, do me a favor,” O’Neal said. “Don’t take our secret sauce to their boring show. I watch that show, they never laugh. You come over there with dumbass jokes and I heard them laughing. Do not take our secret sauce to other shows. No, you cannot.”
“We never talk about the family,” Barkley chimed in as a way of getting O’Neal to drop the subject. “We’re part of the ESPN family now. We don’t talk about the family publicly.”
But Shaquille O’Neal didn’t take Barkley’s advice, instead, he leaned into Kenny Smith being a “traitor” throughout the night. Amid dropping Trader Joe’s and Las Vegas Traitors references, O’Neal told his longtime colleague “Traitors don’t get to make comments on our show.”
“Traitors don’t get to make comments on our show” – Shaq 😬 pic.twitter.com/o6eMHjwTNl
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 13, 2025
The ribbing got to Smith enough to keep him from racing O’Neal to the board. But the ribbing wasn’t enough to keep Smith from joining Countdown again.
“Y’all hated me last week,” Smith said with a smirk. “Wait a couple weeks when y’all see me.”
After already airing on ESPN four nights this season, Inside the NBA isn’t scheduled to return until Dec. 25 for the network’s slate of Christmas Day games. Which means Kenny Smith will have plenty of opportunities to keep making new friends over at NBA Countdown before he has to deal with Shaq or Barkley again.