TNT’s Inside the NBA may be taking place this season, but that didn’t stop us from having a heartwarming moment between Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley on Sunday night. The darling duo appeared on the NBA TV pregame show in Denver before Game 2 of the NBA Finals, and Shaq had a lot of nice things to say about his partner in crime, calling Barkley “the big brother I never had.” It turns out that O’Neal and Barkley had a connection even before their friendship grew on TV. “His mom and I were the sweetest friendship, I didn’t even know,” O’Neill said. “I used to hate Charles. We were getting ready to get into a fight, and before I could get to the locker room and get dressed to go down to the locker room and see him, I got a call from his mom… who said ‘Isn’t he? He hit my son’ and I was like ‘Who this? “
source: Sports Illustrated
source: Sports Illustrated