The Big Artistotle was in tears.
Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley couldn’t contain their laughter while discussing Lakers big man Anthony Davis exiting the court in a wheelchair after sustaining a head injury against the Warriors.
During Wednesday’s installment of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” Shaq and Chuck’s hysterical laughter delayed the conversation about the Warriors’ 121-106 win over the Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals playoff series.
The pair began laughing as soon as Ernie Johnson mentioned Davis’ injury — when the Lakers star was inadvertently struck in the face by Warriors center Kevon Looney’s arm while fighting for a rebound in the fourth quarter.
After Davis was ruled out of the game with a head injury, he was escorted away in a wheelchair for further medical evaluation, per Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.
“These guys man,” Kenny Smith said after he paused his analysis due to the laugher.
When Johnson asked what they were laughing about, Smith said, “You know what they’re laughing about.”
O’Neal added, “I’m laughing at Chuck.”
But, everyone had a different story.
“Shaq is over there crumbling up paper, that’s why I was laughing,” Barkley said.
At this point, Johnson pressed the pair to “tell the truth,” and O’Neal just continued to laugh even harder.
The Basketball Hall of Famer, who maintained that he was laughing at Barkley, then took off his glasses and appeared to wipe away tears.
“Ernie, don’t let us go there, because if we go there it’ll never stop,” Smith said.
“Ernie, we can go until the next game,” Barkley replied.
“Man guys, come on now,” Johnson said, before he asked Barkley for a takeaway from the Game 5 matchup.
After a few more laughs, the show went on, with Barkley able to pull it together long enough for some serious analysis.
With 7:43 to go in the fourth quarter, Davis was inadvertently elbowed by Looney as the two bigs battled for a rebound of a D’Angelo Russell drive to the basket.
Davis, who appeared to make contact with Looney near his temple, doubled over on the court and held his face in his hands.
The 30-year-old was seen being evaluated on the Lakers’ bench by athletic trainer Jon Ishop, before he went back to the locker room for further evaluation.
Davis did not re-enter the game, and was replaced by Rui Hachimura.
The Lakers big man finished with 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting, with nine rebounds and three assists.
After the game, Davis’ agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group, as well as his parents and Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, visited the training room at Chase Center to check on the eight-time All-Star, according to ESPN.
“Obviously everyone saw he took a shot to the head, but we just checked on him,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said after the game.
“He seems to be doing really good already. That’s just where he’s at. That’s the status of it right now.”
An early diagnosis indicated that Davis appeared to have avoided a concussion, Haynes reported early Thursday morning.
He was seen exiting the arena walking under his own power.
Davis’ status for Game 6 is unclear. If diagnosed with a concussion, he would not be eligible to be cleared until 24 hours after the initial injury, or late Thursday evening, per NBA protocol.
The Lakers have a chance to close out the series and advance to the Western Conference Finals at home in Game 6 on Friday.
