Shaq loves to tell a good story and sometimes good storytellers have to embellish the truth a little bit to make things more interesting. On Thursday night, the Inside the NBA crew took a trip down memory lane for a “On This Day” segment involving their analysts in the playoffs, and on June 4, 2000, Shaq caught his legendary lob from Kobe Bryant in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against Portland.
As they watched the highlight, Shaq was quiet, needing a prod from Ernie to talk about the clip and Kenny wanted to know who he was pointing at. From there, Shaq told a story that had the entire crew doubled over in laughter in total disbelief as Shaq tried convincing them he was pointing at a two-year-old Shareef, who had said “Daddy win” before the game when Shaq “didn’t know he could talk.”
“He said ‘daddy, win.’ I didn’t even know he could talk.”
@SHAQ was pointing to his son Shareef after his iconic lob from Kobe. pic.twitter.com/O0BcZrTmFt
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) June 4, 2021
Kenny calling Shaq a liar, prompting Shaq to come around the desk to shove him, with Ernie siding with Kenny saying, “I’m not sure I’m buying any of this” is sensational. The reaction to Shaq saying he didn’t know his two-year-old could talk is absolutely incredible as Ernie is barely able to keep it together and Kenny can’t stop poking holes in Shaq’s story.
What makes it even funnier is that Shareef would’ve been not quite six months old at the time as he was born in January of that year, not two years old as Shaq said, which further points to Kenny and Ernie being correct in calling BS on this story. I fully believe Shaq was pointing to his family, but I don’t think anyone’s buying the “Daddy win” portion of this one.