Charles Barkley Thinks Kenny Smith Is Lying About Being Sick Because He Thinks Vegetarians Can’t Get Food Poisoning

TNT had a rare Sunday night doubleheader for the final night of the NBA regular season, which was supposed to mean the return of the Inside the NBA crew for the first time all together since before the NCAA Tournament began.

However, as they came on the broadcast, Shaq was in Kenny Smith’s customary seat on the set and Ernie Johnson announced that Smith was out with what they were told was food poisoning. Charles Barkley was not buying Kenny’s excuse, saying he just wanted a couple extra off days before the playoffs, and stated his case by noting that Kenny Smith is a vegetarian and insisting vegetarians cannot get food poisoning.

“First of all, I’m gonna tell you why he’s lying. He just wanted an extra couple days at home,” Barkley said. “First of all, Kenny’s a vegetarian. Nobody gets sick eating that crap. I can get sick eating chitlins, neck bones, burgers, and pizza. Nobody gets that broccolini crap, asparagus, he eat those black bean burgers, there’s no way that crap can make you sick.”

Shaq was all in on Barkley’s line of thinking, but Ernie was trying to give Smith the benefit of the doubt, noting maybe it was some bad tofu, which led Chuck to deliver his hottest take of them all, which is that tofu doesn’t actually exist. In any case, Smith will undoubtedly hear it from his cohorts when he does return from the playoffs and will need to explain how a vegetarian ends up getting food poisoning to Chuck and Shaq.