charles barkley

Shaquille O’Neal said he’s “ashamed” of the people involved in the gambling scandal that rocked the NBA on Thursday.

Charles Barkley called two of the individuals involved in the matter “stupid.”

Kenny Smith said the situation is “super unfortunate.”

One day after the “Inside the NBA” crew made its ESPN debut, the three analysts, as well as host Ernie Johnson, had a huge story to discuss that had little to do with the actual game of basketball.

On Thursday morning, federal prosecutors unsealed two indictments that outlined separate schemes to rig sports bets and poker games. More than 30 people were arrested, including former Clippers player and current Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, who was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games run by Mafia families.

Also arrested were Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who is accused of being part of a scheme to provide private insider NBA information to help others profit from online bets, and retired player Damon Jones, who has been charged with taking part in both schemes.

“All these guys knew what was at stake, and I’m just ashamed that they put themselves and put their family and put the NBA in this position,” O’Neal said during Thursday’s broadcast. “We all know the rules. We all know the letter of the law. And it’s just unfortunate — you know, innocent till proven guilty, but usually when the FBI has something, they have you.”

He added: “I know Chauncey. I know Damon very well, played with Damon. … I’m ashamed that those guys will put their families and their careers in jeopardy. There’s an old saying in the hood, all money ain’t good money. So if you’re making $9 million, like, how much more do you need? Especially if you know you get caught, you can do jail time, lose your career, put a bad image on yourself or your family or on the NBA.”

Smith pointed out that “gambling is an addiction which could make you make illogical decisions,” but Barkley interjected his opinion that addiction had nothing to do with the decision Jones and Rozier made to help others make fraudulent bets.

“This ain’t got nothing to do with addiction. These dudes are stupid,” Barkley said. “Why are they stupid? You under no circumstances can you fix basketball games. Under no circumstances. … Like, Rozier makes $26 million. Him betting, giving people information or taking himself out of games — how much is he going to benefit taking himself out the game to get unders?”

Barkley added: “You can’t fix ball games. Like I said, this is separate from Chauncey, but the notion that guys are making all this money and giving information — come on, man, stop that. That got nothing to do with addiction. That’s just total stupidity on these two dudes parts.”

Billups — a five-time All-Star who was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP as a member of the Detroit Pistons and is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach — and 10-year NBA veteran Rozier were placed on immediate leave, the league announced Thursday.

Billups’ attorney issued a statement Thursday night strongly denying the allegations against his client.

“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity,” attorney Chris Heywood said. “Men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others.”

Jones played three seasons with LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008 and was an assistant coach during the Lakers star‘s second stint in Cleveland. In one of the indictments, prosecutors allege Jones was an unofficial coach with the Lakers from 2022 to 2023 when he used inside information for sports betting.

The band is back together, even though they never really parted.

Departed? Sure. The crew that comprised “Inside the NBA” moved from TNT when the cable network lost its NBA broadcast rights to ESPN, NBC and Amazon after last season.

But the ensemble that somehow is greater than the sum of its star-studded parts continues — albeit now under the title “NBA Tip-Off.”

The familiar lineup of Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson reunited for a pregame show ahead of ESPN’s doubleheader Wednesday, with the Cleveland Cavaliers visiting the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs visiting the Dallas Mavericks.

And they poked fun at themselves and at the Worldwide Leader. Any fears that ESPN suits would tone down the rollicking, often hilarious dynamic the quartet brought to the last decade-plus of the 36-year “Inside the NBA” run were quickly doused.

O’Neal opened by admonishing Johnson for mentioning the NBA‘s opening games Tuesday night, which broadcast on NBC and the Peacock streaming service.

“You are supposed to say, this is TRON — the real opening night,” O’Neal said to laughs. “Don’t forget who we are, boys.”

Johnson gently pushed back, replying, “Don’t be that way!” to more laughs.

O’Neal said Smith was almost late for the show, and Smith said, “I haven’t been that nervous since Game 7 of the NBA Finals.”

Barkley, who had been the most vocal skeptic of leaving TNT for ESPN, seconded that sentiment, saying “I was nervous all day.” But before he could continue in a more serious vein, Johnson interrupted and clips were shown of Barkley expressing doubts about ESPN on the “Dan Patrick Show” and other outlets.

More laughs ensued, although Barkley did his best to toe the company line, saying, “I’m not gonna lie. Every person who ever touched a ball wanted to be on ESPN. They are the greatest sports network ever. And to be working with these guys is an honor and a privilege.”

Johnson echoed Barkley, saying, “It is a dream come true,” and asked Smith if he felt the same way. Smith sighed and replied, “I will answer yes, but do you all want a napkin for all that kissing up?”

The laughs continued when a clip of Barkley earlier expressing worry about the workload at ESPN was followed by a graphic that displayed his Thursday work “schedule,” which included appearances every hour of the day, including during broadcasts of World Axe Throwing League and the American Cornhole League.

Basketball analysis did eventually follow the jokes and jabs, with O’Neal making a somewhat-bold prediction regarding oft-injured former Lakers big man Anthony Davis, who now plays in Dallas: “If A.D. plays 65 games, the Dallas Mavericks will be in the Western Conference finals.”

“NBA Tip-Off” was set to air segments pregame, halftime and postgame during Wednesday’s doubleheader, and ESPN announced it will air 20 days during the regular season around games broadcast on ESPN and ABC.

Formats will be different on each network. Pregame shows on ESPN will begin an hour before tipoff and postgame shows will start right after the final horn. Pregame shows on ABC will begin 30 minutes before tipoff. with postgame shows airing only after Saturday prime-time games. The NBA Sunday Showcase series on ABC also will feature an “NBA Tip-Off” pregame show.

“We’re proud that ‘Inside the NBA’ — one of the most iconic and beloved shows in all of media — will play a leading role in our NBA coverage,” ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said in a statement two weeks ago. “Fans should expect the same great show they’re accustomed to watching as it becomes an essential part of the highest-profile events in the NBA, including the NBA Finals.”

There was talk a few months ago that TNT could produce a separate show with the same cast, since this season’s “NBA Tip-Off” will continue to be produced in TNT’s Atlanta studios. Barkley seemingly put the kibosh on that notion when he said a pilot TNT taped was “just stupid stuff.”

“Number one, we won’t have basketball highlights [on TNT],” Barkley said in June. “But also, we’re probably gonna be going up against an NBA game. And anybody who likes basketball ain’t gonna say, ‘Hey, you know what? Let me turn off an NBA game on Amazon, ESPN or NBC to go watch these four dudes sit around and talk about nothing.’”

Instead, the quartet will continue to talk hoops and trade zingers, but only on ESPN and ABC.

“Inside the NBA” 2025-26 regular season broadcast schedule

2025
Oct. 22: ESPN and ESPN2
Oct. 23: ESPN
Oct. 29: ESPN
Nov. 12: ESPN
Dec. 25: ESPN and ABC

2026
Jan. 24: ABC
Jan. 28: ESPN
Jan. 31: ABC
Feb. 7: ABC
Feb. 20: ESPN
Feb. 21: ABC
Feb. 22: ABC
Feb. 27: ESPN
Feb. 28: ABC
March 1: ABC
March 6: ESPN
March 7: ABC
March 8: ABC
March 14: ABC
April 12: ESPN

June 13 (UPI) — Shaquille O’Neal, the retired basketball star and NBA analyst, has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle claims that he misled investors by promoting the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

O’Neal, who urged fans to trust the platform in a commercial, won’t admit wrongdoing. He reportedly earned much less to make the commercial that aired in June 2022: around $750,000, Front Office Sports reported.

The settlement Monday marks one of the first high-profile settlements over FTX’s collapse, CNBC reported.

The civil case in Miami federal court. O’Neal must pay the amount within 30 days. An initial settlement was reached in November.

In the class-action suit, O’Neal is accused of presenting FTX as a trustworthy and legitimate investment tool while allegedly helping drive the adoption of unregistered securities.

Eligible are users who deposited money into FTX or held its proprietary token, FTT, between May 2019 and late 2022.

O’Neal’s $1.8 million payout will cover all legal fees, notice and administration costs, and payouts to those eligible. Also, he is released from future liability and is barred from seeking reimbursement from the FTX bankruptcy estate.

“We are pleased to have this matter behind us,” O’Neal’s attorney said in a statement.

In 2022, O’Neal told CNBC he “was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”

At the time he said he didn’t know much about crypto currency.

“I don’t understand it, so I will probably stay away from it until I get a full understanding of what it is,” he told CNBS. “From my experience, it is too good to be true.”

Other FTX endorsers, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen and Steph Curry, had claims against them largely dismissed.

FTX, a company in the Bahamas, was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange three years ago but it racked up billions of dollars or losses and filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.

Founder Sam Bankman-Fried isserving a 25-year prison sentence for seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the FTX collapse.

O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson are moving from TNT next season when “Inside the NBA” appears on ESPN.

One may be the loneliest number, but No. 2 is what sent Shaquille O’Neal urgently mincing off the “Inside the NBA” stage last month while the cameras kept running.

O’Neal copped to the truth Thursday night during his 18th appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” giving what might be more detail than anyone needed about that sudden departure in April.

First, he clung to the fib, saying, “I was drinking a lot of water that day. So I know I had the No. 2 run, but it was really a No. 1. So let’s just get that out of the way.”

He explained he was drinking olive oil at the time “to be sexy,” because he’d seen on Instagram that if he drank olive oil daily for 14 days, he would clean out his system and have a flat stomach. “So I was trying that.”

A laughing Fallon held his face in his hands.

“You know what,” O’Neal said. “I just made a mistake. I lied to you on national TV. It wasn’t a No. 1 run. It was a No. 2 run. I had to go bad. Oh, I had to go so bad.”

Fallon begged him to keep telling the lie. O’Neal asked whether the host had seen him squeezing his butt cheeks as he scooted away from the “Inside the NBA” desk.

Then Fallon showed a photo of what the crew did to O’Neal the next day: It put a blue porta-potty in studio on his side of the table.

Blessedly, the conversation then moved in a different direction.

Things were a bit more serious but no less amusing back in April when O’Neal got up while a co-host was in the middle of talking and — in a big hurry — walked awkwardly in front of his fellow panelists and out the stage door. Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley weren’t sure what was going on.

“You all right, big fella?” Barkley asked with a look of concern on his face.

As the camera (cruelly) followed him, O’Neal blurted to his co-hosts to “go ahead, keep talking” while one reminded him, “Hey, we’re on TV.”

“It’s that olive oil you’ve been drinking,” Barkley said. “Hey, take some matches with you.”

As the remaining hosts broke into giggles, Kenny Smith said, “After 40, you can’t hold it no more.”

“That wasn’t something planned, was it?” Ernie Johnson Jr. wondered.

Smith also noted that O’Neal had been drinking olive oil to clean out his system, saying, “Oh, he’s cleaning out his gut all right!”

“I did not like his gait as he left!” Johnson said.

And Barkley simply couldn’t move past the idea of the smell.

“Please turn his mic off, that’s all,” Smith quipped. Then, as Smith tried to return to talking about L.A. Clippers forward Kawhai Leonard, the team in TNT’s Studio J came through with the instant replay of Shaq bailing out. Instant. Freaking. Replay.

IN SLO-MO.

The three very professional analysts immediately began very professional analysis of O’Neal’s shambolic gait.

The big man returned fairly soon after that, mumbling something about drinking too much water and about Barkley talking way too long when he really needed to cut to a break.

“Sorry about that, America,” he said.

Seriously Shaq, you have absolutely no reason to apologize. As long as you remember the matches.