The Loop

Shaq and Charles Barkley laughing at the Clippers-Rockets fight is the funniest thing you'll see all day

On Monday, tensions were noticeably high in the NBA, and on Martin Luther King Day no less. For some reason, no one could get along.

In Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook was ejected after being hit with two technicals, prompting Carmelo Anthony to say he's "done" with referees. In Philly, Sixers guard Ben Simmons and Raptors guard Kyle Lowry were ejected after a mini-dustup that reportedly bled over into the tunnel. Then, there was the odd situation in the Los Angeles Clippers-Houston Rockets game, Chris Paul's first at the Staples Center since being traded to Houston.

Late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers 113-102 win, Paul and former teammate Blake Griffin had a heated exchange, which led to other heated exchanges followed by more heated exchanges with multiple parties involved, including Rockets forward Trevor Ariza, Clippers guards Patrick Beverly and Austin Rivers, and even Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni. Similar to the Lowry-Simmons situation, this one also bled over into the postgame, with reports that a few Rockets went into the Clippers locker room. Apparently, it was bad enough to require a police presence. Well, when word of this "po-lice presence" got to the Inside the NBA set, let's just say Shaq and Charles Barkley found it quite amusing:

You likely won't see a funnier video this week than Shaq and Chuck laughing their asses off at the supposed Clippers-Rockets "incident." Just when you thought, "wow, there's some bad blood in the current NBA," Shaq and Chuck make a complete mockery of it. As much as this seems like pontificating about the good ol' days from the two former NBA MVPs, they kind of have a point. Police presence? Let's not get crazy here. This sounds more like it was a lot of "hold me backs!" than an actual fight, which Shaq and Chuck have actually been in ... against each other. That includes this on-set altercation as well, which was likely more tense than any current NBA scuffle could ever be.