Shaq on verge of tears over Charles Barkley before awkwardly roasting Knicks star to his face

The Inside the NBA crew pulled no punches on Saturday night.

This time, it was the New York Knicks on the receiving end of analysts Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal‘s brutal jibes, both before and after their come-from-behind 108-106 victory against the Houston Rockets at Madison Square Garden.

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Lakers legend Shaq was even left on the verge of tears after Barkley’s hilarious half-time comment.

Host Ernie Johnson asked Barkley, “How did the 13-point lead vanish so quickly for New York?”

“Well, I think that the Dicks, to me, their offense got stagnant,” Barkley said.

O’Neal started laughing uncontrollably and struggled to keep it together as the show continued.

Moments later, Inside the NBA shared various social media posts from viewers, many asking why The Big Diesel was in a fit of hysterics.

“Because I was talking about my good friend Dick Vitale,” O’Neal said. “Love you, Dick Vitale.”

“Dick Vitale is a great man, isn’t he?” Barkley responded.

“Oh yes he is, Shaq replied.

“I wish that were actually the reason,” Johnson said.

But that was nothing compared to the barrage Knicks center Karl-Anhony Towns endured from the pair.

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Before the game had started, O’Neal criticized KAT for being “soft.”

All-Star Towns is undoubtedly a skilled big man, but his tendency to settle for perimeter shots and reluctance to exploit his size in the post has been a frustrating issue for both Shaq and Barkley for some time.

“I would say this to his face if I were his teammate: he’s playing soft,” O’Neal said. “Playing really soft. You’re going to have to decide who you want to be. Inside or outside, but whatever you decide, you have to be consistent. You can’t say, ‘I’m the greatest big man shooter,’ and play like he’s been playing. When he plays like that, me and Chuck don’t have a problem.”

He added: “But he gets in foul trouble too much. He plays really silly. Again, if I were on his team, I would look him in the face and say, ‘KAT, we need you. There are big aspirations for the Knicks, and you’re playing soft.’”

“He doesn’t know how to play basketball,” Barkley added before the game.

“The matchup dictates whether you shoot 3s or you go post up. He’s a heck of a player, but when they put a little guy on you, go in the post. He’s a great shooter. I ain’t letting no little dude guard me.”

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“Joker’s [Nikola Jokic] the best I’ve seen at doing it,” Barkley explained. “He don’t never let no little guy guard him. He don’t shoot threes. Now, he’ll shoot a three when he has a big guy guarding him, but when they put one of them little munchkins on him, he take him down low and just punish them.”

In the end, Towns scored 25 points against the Rockets and had a pretty solid game.

Afterwards, he joined Inside the NBA for a rather awkward post-game interview.

Shaq didn’t mince his words and followed up on his earlier claim that he’d tell KAT to his face what he thought about him.

“At the beginning of the game, I said you were playing soft because I’ve seen you at times when you play great. And what you must understand in New York is that you need to be great for your guys to win a championship,” said Shaq.

“If you guys win a championship, of course they’re gonna talk about Brunson, but it’s you and your play; you have to be dominant. You responded very, very well; you played very well. You played in the paint. That’s how you should play. You should always play great,” added the Hall of Famer.

“For sure, but what you said too is, if we win a championship, they can talk about anybody as long as we get a ring, that’s the most important thing,” Towns replied. “I don’t care. I don’t care about any of that.”

“No, but you’ve got to play great. One-two punch, and you’re part of that one-two punch,” O’Neal added.

“Hell yeah, but I wanna make sure that we all understand that the main goal here is to win. It don’t matter who gets the credit or whatever,” KAT said.

“It’s not about credit. Nope, you got to play great,” O’Neal reiterated.

“Sure, I hear you. Legend, I agree with you,” Towns said.

Towns is having a down year this season, averaging a career-worst 46.7 percent from the field, averaging just 19.8 points, the lowest since his rookie year.

He is also shooting just 34.9 percent from 3-point range – the lowest figure since his rookie year.

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Towns was selected No.1 overall by Minnesota in 2015 and earned NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2016.

The six-time All-Star helped the Timberwolves reach the Western Conference Finals during the 2024 season before joining the Knicks later that year.

Towns helped guide the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Finals in his first season in New York, and won the NBA Cup with the franchise earlier this season.

However, he has struggled to find consistency alongside guard Jalen Brunson.

The 30-year-old center entered Saturday averaging 19.8 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, all down from his 2024-25 totals with the Knicks.

The Knicks are currently third in the Eastern Conference with a 36-21 record.