Smith insights on ‘Inside’ show
Plenty of times, the four men will tease each other. Sometimes they talk about the NBA. All of the time, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson have fun on TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
No wonder the show and their dynamics are the subject of a four-part documentary, “The Inside Story,” which began airing Thursday and will continue through Sunday.
The first episode featured Johnson on how he has mastered being the show’s “traffic cop.”
The second episode will air at 9 ET Friday, highlighting how Smith became a “role player” during his 12-year NBA career and his 23-year run with TNT.
The third episode, which will air at 9 ET Saturday, will focus on Barkley’s role as the entertainer since 2000.
The fourth and final episode will air Sunday after the NBA All-Star Game, highlighting how O’Neal became the show’s “little brother” for the past nine years after spending a 19-year NBA career as a dominant big man.
“No one can replace any of the four of us, ever,” Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “It would not be as good.”
In a Q&A, Smith talked about the show’s success, his role and his memorable moments on set. The Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What has made “Inside the NBA” such a unique show?
“We can never be re-created or reduplicated. That’s what makes me feel good. There’s only one Charles, only one Shaq, only one me and only one Ernie. Any other show, they make you blend in and fit in to what the show is. We create the environment that the show exists. No one can ever replace any of us. Maybe someone can be added on. But no one can replace any of the four of us, ever. It would not be as good.”
Q: What has been the key with balancing between being the point guard while also stirring the pot?
“You hit it on the head – being a point guard from New York City. We got 8 million stories in New York and 8 million different types of attitudes and people. So I’ve seen them all. I always think of my role as the point guard. I’m supposed to assist certain times, so there will be times I will make my point. But if I hear that someone isn’t saying something that isn’t clear enough, I’m going to assist them. Or if I see something that I know they will be better at, I’m going to assist that as well. That’s always been my role with naturally being a point guard.
“A point guard is also a good listener, so I listen to everything that they’re saying all the time. I’ve been on shows before where you get 30 seconds, and he gets 30 seconds and it’s singular. On our show, our thought process is it’s never singular. It’s always interactive.”
Q: There are many examples. But what are your favorite times when you stirred the pot with Shaq or Barkley?
“Shaq wasn’t accustomed to that when he first got there. He is the ultimate person that can multitask. So he has 18 products and his entourage of people that used to be with him when he first got to the NBA. He’s gotten older so he has less people. He has a lot of things going on. You can’t really do that with us . ... Shaq had actually said, ‘It’ll be a good game if so-and-so has a great game tonight.’ But that player was on the injured reserve that night. So I was like, ‘He’s not even playing; what are you talking about?’ Charles just goes, ‘You don’t even know basketball!’ We went in on him and it’s only his second week there.’
“You have to be on point. You don’t have to know everything. That’s part of the show, too. We make all of that part of the show. No one knows everything about basketball and everything that’s going to happen. Charles will come out and say, ‘I was watching another show. I wasn’t even watching (the game). I didn’t see that because this game was boring.’ No one else is going to say that. We’ve all done that at one time. That’s what separates us. We don’t just make fun of each other. We make fun of ourselves.”
Q: How did you come up with the Championship Club?
“I was doing All-Star Weekend parties. Everyone keeps saying how hard it is to get into the All-Star Weekend events. But if you got an NBA championship, you get in easy. Then that’s when the idea sparked. We have to create a championship club where Charles can’t get in. Those are security guards that were really from my events in Atlanta. ‘If you don’t have a ring, you’re not on the list.’ ”
Q: What’s the story behind how the “Going Fishin” segment got started?
“During the Rockets’ first championship year (in 1994) we were down 2-0 to Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals, the Suns’ mascot came on the court with a fishing pole. He opened up the fishing pole and each lever would show the teams they had beaten. The last lever on the pole said, ‘Houston Rockets.’ The crowd went crazy. So I went into the huddle and said ‘We ain’t going fishing!” I used to use that term every year then that ‘we’re going to send them fishing.’ When I got to TNT, that was in my vernacular all the time. No one wants to go fishing. We all know what that means. Everyone gets it if you follow basketball or not.”
Q: How do you get onto the big screen when you’re telestrating a play?
“It’s an ancient secret!! Shaq and I were in the green room. I’m looking at the plays. Steve Fiorello, a producer of the show, is walking by and I was saying I’ll go up to the big board. Shaq said that was crazy. I wish I could take the plays and let them see from my entry point of view. They’re not seeing what I see. Then Shaq says, ‘It’s like ‘Poltergeist’!’ Steve then tells us, ‘We can do that, but it will probably take two or three days.’ You would have to send the play in and then it would take two or three days. I wondered why does it take that long? I told him I could do that in 15 minutes. I have a production company so I understand what he just said. I know how to do that. It took 10 minutes. If all of those things don’t happen at once, it would take a day. For me, I could do it live because I understand the process and have a production company. That was the reason that came about.”
Q: How did you pull off the parody of Kobe Bryant’s Aston Martin skit?
“This is what I love about our show. The cameramen, makeup ladies and everyone else on the show can say I talked to Kenny about that. We were watching Kobe jumping over the Aston Martin. I’m laughing and I go up to Alex Houvouras, who puts together all the memes that gets on the show. He said, ‘Let’s do it with you.’ But the secret was I didn’t know I would get hit. They told me they would let me jump over the car. I’m smarter than the average bear so I knew something. There were certain things they were asking me to film, so I knew they had something up their sleeve.”
Q: So when you saw it live, you didn’t know what the final version was going to look like?
“No. There was a version where they had me jump and I made it. They had me do one where I jumped over a car and then one where I just stood there. I knew something was up. They figured they can make it look like I got hit.”
Q: You have silly moments like that, but also a lot of times you have real talk. Following the Jacob Blake shooting last year, you walked off the set. What were you weighing that day on whether to do that, and what impact do you think that made?
“I wasn’t weighing to do it or not. It was very spontaneous in a certain sense. I was talking to my son KJ, who was at the University of North Carolina, and he mentioned the NBA players were going to sit out. I then thought there is something I should do. He asked what I was going to do, but I didn’t know. I thought maybe for a segment in honor of him, I’ll do what people do at the arena with giving a moment of silence. Then when I came to the studio, things didn’t feel right. The security guard let me in the parking lot. The security guard let me through the door. Then I went to the makeup room. Everything felt the same. That was not right. Everything is not the same today. I can’t be here. So as soon as Ernie started talking, he put the stamp that everything was starting to feel the same for me. I thought I can’t be a talking head today. I have to join the march.”
Q: Beyond that moment, what role do you think Inside the NBA and the Arena have done with addressing social justice issues?
“I actually credit Charles. Before he got there, we weren’t that. We were an entertaining show. That’s why he was on our show. I always knew Charles as a player. I used to wonder why he would be quoted on political things, music and anything off topic. You always see Charles would have a comment. In the locker room, they would ask him, ‘Who’s going to win the Oscars tonight?’ I’m like, ‘Why don’t I get that question? I watch movies, too!’ They always took him outside the realm of sport.
“So when he got there, it was natural for Charles to say, ‘Before we start, I want to talk about Martha Stewart or Snoop Dogg.’ It was a natural conversation for him. That allowed me to share whether I had the same opinion or different from his. I thank him for that. Even when I disagree with him and he’s in left field, I say, ‘Thank you.’ No one was asking basketball or sports figures, ‘Who’s going to win the Oscars, the Grammys, the presidential race.’ He was the first in our sport that was consistently asked that question. Not just social injustice issues, but every part of our culture. He was always the guy that asked that question.”