Since 1989, sportscaster Ernie Johnson has hosted Inside the NBA on TNT and shared his insights on professional basketball. Over the past several decades, Johnson has been joined by other panelists who provide their takes as well. Johnson is currently joined by Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. The quartet are fun for fans to watch, you have to wonder what it’s like for Johnson to actually work with those three big personalities. Well, he’s opening up about that and doing so in a hilarious way.
It goes without saying that of the four hosts on Inside, Ernie Johnson is easily the most reserved. Yet the 68-year-old TV industry veteran wasn’t his typical laid-back self (for just a little while) during his appearance on The Draymond Green Show. Co-host Baron Davis (who, like Green, has appeared as a fill-in host on the TNT show) asked Johnson what it’s like having to control the chaos that comes with his co-hosts’ larger-than-life personalities. To that end, Johnson explained in the YouTube video that it can go a few ways:
You’ve both been in there with me. You know what it is. Every show is somewhere between a walk on the beach and a trainwreck. And, half the time, you don’t know what it’s gonna be until you hit the air. Part of the deal is, look, we all have lives. We all have [situations where] some days are good, some days are a little rocky. You may be bringing that to the chair when you sit down.’You had a bad day. Shaq, you had a bad day.’ He doesn’t feel like taking anything from Chuck, and you can tell right from the start if that’s gonna happen. So really it’s just kind of a feeling out process.
