Wednesday night was a big one in the Mavs-Clippers series, as the two teams met in Los Angeles for a pivotal Game 5 (I’m legally obligated as a sportswriter to call it that) with the series tied 2-2. The first half was a back-and-forth battle until the Mavs went on a late second quarter run to pull ahead by 10 at the halftime break on TNT. Once the halftime buzzer sounded, it was time for Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson to break down that half of basketball in the studio.
However, before they could get to that, TNT’s production team decided to tap into the dominant story of the day in the world of pop culture, playing Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss that he released earlier in the day, “Euphoria”, in the transition from the booth in L.A. to the studio in Atlanta. Only half of the desk realized what was being played in the background as Ernie did his lead-in, with Shaq and Kenny both chuckling about how they were suddenly in the middle of the rap beef.
The least surprising thing ever is that Shaq (literally a DJ) and Kenny (a man who still listens to new music) would recognize the Drake diss playing while Ernie (old, white) and Chuck (listens to country) would be oblivious. Shaq and Kenny got a kick out of it, with Jet joking that they were inserting themselves in the middle of the rap beef and they needed to play Drake’s “Push Ups” to stay neutral in the battle between the Los Angeles and Toronto artists.