Shaquille O’Neal made a fast break to the bathroom and cracked up his colleagues
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — Shaquille O’Neal and his “Inside the NBA” cohosts love to roast each other. He gave them some extra ammunition on Monday night.
In a moment shared on social media by the TNT sports show, O’Neal rushed off set in the middle of their live broadcast to use the restroom.
The video, captioned “Shaq had to hustle out of Studio J 🤣😅,” showed him quickly getting up as his colleague Kenny Smith asked, “You alright, big fella?”
“Go ahead,” O’Neal said as he walked quickly. “Keep talking gents.”
Upon being reminded that they were live, O’Neal said, “I know what we’re doing. Go ahead.”
Smith then let the audience know what had probably happened as he said of O’Neal, “It’s that olive oil [you’ve] been drinking.”
Co-host Charles Barkley couldn’t resist getting in on the bathroom humor, calling out to O’Neal, “Hey, take some matches with you.”
The gang of basketball analysts engaged in some good natured ribbing of the 53-year-old O’Neal. “After 40, you can’t hold it no more,” Smith joked.
“He’s been drinking olive oil to clean his gut,” he continued, laughing. “He’s cleaning his gut all right.”
The group later engaged in some play-by-play of the incident.
“That was my number one, drinking that water,” O’Neal said and apologized to viewers.
He blamed Barkley’s long-winded chatter on the show for the emergency.
“I’m sitting him here like shut the hell up and hurry up,” O’Neal quipped.
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