Bill Simmons says Inside the NBA has not worked as well in its first season on, and he thinks Shaquille O'Neal is the biggest reason. On a recent podcast, Simmons said the long-running basketball studio show has felt off all year and suggested the move from TNT to has taken away the looseness that made it a staple for decades.
Simmons argued that the problem starts with the setting. gives the show less room to stretch its legs after games because ABC cuts away to late-night local newscasts, leaving the crew without the same postgame runway it had on TNT. He also said the show has faced complaints from viewers and media alike during its first season on, which has not matched the easy rhythm it had for decades on TNT.
That criticism matters now because the playoffs are reaching the point where the show can still change the conversation. Simmons said the next couple rounds could help Inside the NBA flip the narrative, with better basketball and a bigger spotlight as the field narrows to four teams left. He said that should make the broadcast easier to carry, especially for O'Neal, who can simply watch the games and follow along more closely.
Simmons did not stop at the schedule. He said O'Neal seems to be on the show because it is fun to be on the show, but that he does not appear to follow basketball at a high enough level anymore. As an example, Simmons said O'Neal did not know who Celtics forward Baylor Scheierman was, which he took as a sign that a studio analyst covering the sport needs at least a basic working knowledge of the players on the floor.
The comments are notable because criticism of O'Neal is less common in NBA media or on social media, even as Inside the NBA has drawn backlash this season. The show has appeared on far less often than it did on TNT, with juggling NBA Countdown and bringing Inside in only for the biggest games. Charles Barkley also kept a busy public schedule this season, doing interviews regularly and showing up on Pardon the Interruption a handful of times, while Kenny Smith signed a side deal with to appear on its studio shows.
Inside the NBA's most talked-about moment this season was not a sharp breakdown or a famous rant, but a bizarre interview O'Neal did with a young couple at an Indiana Pacers game that went viral. For a show built on chemistry and instinct, that kind of detour has become part of the uneasy fit Simmons is talking about. The next stretch of the playoffs will show whether the show can still sound like itself when the stakes are highest and there is less room for anything to go wrong.
