The producers over at TNT’s Inside the NBA must be from L.A., because they keep playing West Coast diss tracks. During the Wednesday (May 1) broadcast, Kendrick Lamar‘s Drake diss song “Euphoria” can be heard playing faintly in the background as Shaq, Kenny, Chuck and Ernie were getting ready for halftime of the Clippers and Mavericks playoff game.
Commentator Kenny Smith can be seen shaking his head in disbelief as he asks why the producers were picking sides. “We in the middle of the rap beef, man,” he says. “Come on, man. We gon’ play one side, you gotta play the other now.”
Shaq, on the other hand, was into it and shouted out DJ Denzel for the song choice. Meanwhile, Charles Barkley was disgusted by the whole notion of rap beef, as he shook his head and said, “Grown a– men.” Ernie Johnson was none the wiser.
This wasn’t the first time producers on the show appeared to side with Kendrick. A few weeks back, they also played the Billboard Hot 100-topping Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick record “Like That.” They played that song again Wednesday night and added the instrumental for Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” for good measure.
One of the show’s producers took to X to answer a question from Spotify’s Carl Chery about who’s choosing the music over there and said, “I’m not no snitch but we talk it out in our group first.”
We would love to be able to listen in on one of those meetings. Trolling rap fans is only one of the reasons why Inside the NBA is one of sports television’s crown jewels.
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