"I don't even have his phone number"- Shaquille O'Neal once kidnapped Kenny Smith's son and got him a haircut

NBA legend-turned-TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal once gave his “Inside the NBA” co-host Kenny Smith a scare.

Before their TNT days, O’Neal and Smith’s children attended the same school as kindergarten classmates. O’Neal decided to pick up Smith’s son, K.J. Smith, from school to give him a haircut, without informing Smith.

Smith recounted the story on Inside the NBA:

“Me and Shaq, we were cool, but we didn’t play together, we didn’t know each other,” Smith said. “They were in kindergarten, his daughter and K.J. went to the same school. I came to school to pick him up, and they were like, ‘Oh, he’s gone with Shaq.’

“I was like, ‘What do you mean he’s gone with Shaq?’ I said, ‘I don’t even have his phone number.’ I tried to get his phone number to even find him. I was like, ‘Where are ya?’ And he got him a haircut.”

Smith added that he asked his son’s teachers why they let him go with O’Neal. The teachers told him they couldn’t say no to the larger-than-life big man:

“I asked the teachers, I said, ‘How could you let him take him?’ They said, ‘Well, it’s Shaquille O’Neal.’”

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Charles Barkley jokes about why Shaquille O’Neal picked up Kenny Smith’s son from school

NBA legend-turned-TNT analyst Charles Barkley

Following Kenny Smith’s story about Shaquille O’Neal picking up his son from school without permission, Inside the NBA co-host Charles Barkley chimed in with a joke.

Barkley said that O’Neal might have picked up K.J. Smith from school by accident after mistaking him for one of his numerous children:

“In fairness Kenny, he may have got him confused with one of his 17 children,” Barkley said.

Co-host Ernie Johnson Jr. then shook his head at the joke as the rest of the crew broke out into a fit of laughter:

“That was wrong. That was wrong, Chuck,” Johnson said. “Chuck, you crossed the line, Chuck. You insulted him a little bit.”

“It’s not 17; it’s 18,” O’Neal joked back.

“No, he only had one (child) then,” Smith responded.

Barkley then doubled down on his joke:

“Give him 15 seconds to name all of his kids,” Barkley said. “I guarantee he can’t get them all out of there.”

“He only has seven (children), man,” Smith said as the crew continued to laugh.

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