TNT Plays Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” During NBA Playoffs Halftime

Los Angeles has more eyes on it than usual, which is saying something. The Lakers were just eliminated by the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers are fighting to stay alive against the Dallas Mavs, and the Compton savior, Kendrick Lamar, is duking it out with Canada’s favorite son. Some Angelinos theorized that Lamar dropped “Euphoria” at 8:24 am as a tribute to Laker Kobe Bryant, but the Drake diss was unexpectedly tied to the L.A. Clippers on May 1, when the song played during the TNT halftime show.

The halftime panel featured the usual suspects: Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. Each of them weighed in on who they thought was going to take game 5 (spoilers, but Dallas prevailed) in predictable fashion. The curveball in the broadcast came when the show cut back from a commercial break and Lamar’s ferocious diss track was blaring over the speakers.

It wasn’t even the soft, melodic intro, either. The TNT halftime show was playing the third beat switch. The one where K. Dot cuts loose and calls Drake a bad father (among other things). It was the last things fan expected to hear, and the same goes for the panelists.

Kendrick Lamar’s Hardest Bars Made The Broadcast

Shaq and Kenny Smith began laughing when they heard the song. “C’mon man,” Smith noted. “Y’all putting us in the middle of the rap beef. [Now] we in the middle.” The Jet then joked that the network needed to play Drake’s “Push Ups” in order to stay neutral. The rest of Inside the broadcast went over without any beef talk, but one of the panel members actually weighed in on the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle previously.

Shaq voiced concern for both artists during an episode of his podcast The Big Podcast With Shaq. “I like competition,” he admitted. “I love it, you know, because we all have egos. We all say we’re the best and the fans want you to prove it.” The NBA legend asserted that things between Drake and Kendrick Lamar would be fine as long as they kept their conflict to the music. “I just hope it don’t go into all that other stuff,” he added. “You know, ‘My crew see your crew and we start fighting and shooting and all that.’”

Given Drake and Dot’s track record, it doesn’t seem like Shaq has anything to worry about. The same goes for the rest of the TNT panel.

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