One of the longest-running gags on Inside The NBA is the race to the board, where either Charles Barkley or Shaquille O’Neal battle Kenny Smith in a sprint race to the massive screen which sits a few meters behind their table. All three retired NBA stars take the race very seriously and even get into fights at times to win it, simply for bragging rights. But in recent times, these races have turned into nightmares for Kenny Smith.
While Smith has won plenty of races over the years, he hasn’t been in the best of forms of late. Last week, he claimed he had never lost a race to the board during the playoffs, only to lose to Barkley the following day. The analyst could have redeemed himself in the following race as he caught Barkley off-guard and was cruising to an easy win.
But unfortunately, he slipped and fell on the stairs leading up to the screen, leaving the rest of the crew in splits. Smith’s back-to-back failures earned him two straight 1st place finishes in Shaqtin’-A-Fool, which is another TNT segment that ranks bloopers from the NBA world.
The two-time NBA champion’s poor form in the race to the board prompted the crew to invite an expert to help him get over his slump. Four-time Olympic gold medal winning sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross joined Tuesday’s episode of Inside The NBA to give Kenny Smith some much-needed advice on his running form.
Despite claiming that Richards-Ross’ advice has helped him, Smith delivered another viral failure when it came to trying out a run. The moment served as another hilarious occasion for O’Neal, Barkley, and Ernie Johnson to savor.
The track and field star told the TNT analyst that he wasn’t starting with enough momentum off his chair, which led to his recent defeat against Barkley. She then took him to the stairs and explained why he had tripped last week.
After an excellent coaching session with the four-time gold medalist, Smith boasted that he felt great and was ready to resume his winning ways in the race to the board. After he returned to his seat, Ernie Johnson asked his co-host to showcase what he had learned from Sanya Richards-Ross.
A confident Smith burst into a sprint, but after reaching the top step near the board, he almost tripped himself again and slammed into the screen head-first.
Smith’s gaffe left Barkley, Johnson, and O’Neal in splits as they leaped out of their chairs to laugh at their co-host. Hence, the Jet’s poor form in the race to the board continues and he could be on his way to winning a third-straight Shaqtin-A-Fool award.
