The lead producers at Turner, led by the ingenious Tim Kiely, meant to interrupt him in the identical method they broke in Barkley and Smith. No observing Digicam 1 or 2. Simply be his idiot self. “But, first year, I was terrible,” Shaq said. “I was on there like Bryant Gumbel, trying to be intelligent. And [Kiely] brought me in and said, ‘We didn’t bring you here for that shit.’ He said, ‘Be you.’ I said, ‘Be me?’ He said, ‘Yeah. Just talk, tell stories. I don’t want all that intelligent shit.’” In some methods, Kiely’s disguise was on the road. Shaq’s first season of 2011-12 had coincided with a 161-day NBA lockout, which means he had no follow video games and debuted on the Christmas Day season opener. Kiely simply figured they’d wing it. When Shaq was launched on the primary present, Barkley and Smith imitated his mumble. However when these two began speaking common once more, Shaq stored mumbling. “I used to be horrible,” he mentioned. “I needed to determine the area of interest. I believed it was one thing the place Ernie requested you a query and [you answer]. However we had been so in all places, we don’t follow something. I used to be terrible.” -via Sports Business Journal / February 14, 2025
