There’s a new eating challenge heating up Twitter.

It’s the #ALSPepperChallenge, started by NBA writer Tom Haberstroh, who found out his mother was diagnosed with ALS late last year. The concept — similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that caught on in 2014 — is simple: Eat a hot pepper on camera, donate to finding a cure and nominate others to join in.

Since Christmas, the challenge has spread and has now gotten all the way to Inside the NBA, where Shaquille O’Neal (who struggled at the uber-spicy One Chip Challenge) and Charles Barkley gave it a shot with some jalapenos:

Shaq struggled a bit, but Barkley had no trouble at all.

Here are some other big names who have joined in:

When Shaquille O’Neal finished reading a lengthy promotion during NBA on TNT on Thursday for a new show on the network titled, The Alienist, people in the studio applauded him, including Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith.

Charles Barkley took issue with that, saying, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. Time out! Y’all are giving him credit for knowing how to read?”

But Barkley’s remarks quickly backfired on him when he was then challenged to attempt to read the promotion, and Smith said they would determine who did it better. It didn’t go well for Barkley, who stumbled over the third word in the script – which was “Alienist” – before busting out laughing.

But he started over and kept reading, until Smith jumped at the chance to hilariously chastise Barkley for his pronunciation of the word “this.”

Needless to say, Shaq did it better.

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic by 20 on Tuesday night, another low point on what’s been a rough patch of the season for the team. (Though we, like all posts declaring teams actually in trouble, will note it is still before the All-Star break.)

So what needs to happen? Shaquille O’Neal had one suggestion (that came with a questionable analogy): Fix it, LeBron.

“A streak like this tells me they’ve had some team meeting conversations but they haven’t had a real conversation,” O’Neal said of the Cavs. “And then, you know we’ve all been through slumps, this is something that you can persevere through. If you don’t do that, if you make no attempt to persevere, you’re showing me quit. And I hate to use those words but they’ve got far too much talent on that team, and too much guys that have played in the league for this to be going on like this. There’s something really really going on and LeBron needs to fix it because he’s the king.”

Shaq was apparently betting that the New England Patriots were going to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. As well all know now, that didn’t happen.

The Eagles took down the Patriots in a thriller. A few days later, Shaq paid off his bet. He ran around in an office in a poncho that had a bunch of feathers stuck to it while cawing like a bid and throwing feathers everywhere.

From now on call me BIRDMAN BIRDMAN I’m a man of my word lost the Super Bowl net to @johnkincade
@robjenners
@bdog_90 . Congrats to the eagles well deserved #GOEAGLES

The one thing I’m wondering is who cleaned up all of those feathers afterwards?

Kobe Bryant shared his thoughts on the new NBA All-Star Game format, and he revealed that he’d pick LeBron James over his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal if he got to be a captain in an interview with ESPN’s Jemele Hill.

Bryant said that if he had to choose between O’Neal when the big man was in his first year with the Heat in 2005 or James in an All-Star draft, he’d go with James.

“I’d take LeBron James,” the five-time champ said. “Are you kidding me?”

He then said he would take O’Neal if he had the chance, but James would be his first choice.

On the All-Star format, Bryant said to ESPN:

“From a competitive standpoint, if I was still playing, I’d be pretty quick to talk trash about how the East just finally said, ‘You know what, we gotta do something different because the West was just kicking butt every single year after year.’ As I sit here now, I think it turned out to be fine. It’s like the greatest pickup game in the world.”

The NBA Countdown crew discussed Bryant’s comments on picking James over O’Neal the same day the interview was posted.

Paul Pierce didn’t believe Bryant.

“There’s no way Kobe is taking guys over T-Mac, Allen Iverson, KG … and how could you not take The Truth in 2005? C’mon, Kob,” Pierce said. “Do your research.”

The thing is, I’m not sure if Bryant was saying he’d pick today’s James over 2005 O’Neal, or that he’d James over O’Neal in 2005, but the rest of the interview is scheduled to air on Sunday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Here’s who the starters were in the 2005 All-Star Game:

West starters – Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming

East starters – Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, LeBron James, Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal

About a month out from the NCAA basketball tournament, there is no obvious frontrunner.

No. 1 Villanova just lost to unranked St. John’s – that was the Red Storm’s second huge win this week after taking down Duke as well – and No. 3 Purdue fell to No. 16 Ohio State all on Wednesday night.

The national championship could go to any team, and Charles Barkley tried to explain why he agrees with that on TNT’s NBA pregame show Thursday – now that the Boilermakers have their first Big Ten loss.

But, uh, the conversation didn’t go as smoothly as Barkley probably envisioned it.

Barkley: (The national championship is) completely up for grabs this year. Completely up for grabs. I thought Iowa was the best team until last night.

Shaquille O’Neal: Iowa?

Barkley: Yeah. I mean, not Iowa. Purdue, Purdue, Purdue. They’re the same – Indiana and Iowa. They’re the same state.

Shaq: That’s an Auburn education.

Barkley continued to try and explain what he meant, but he really only made things worse by (probably mistakenly) throwing in Idaho and Montana into the mix – neither of which are remotely close to Purdue, which is in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Shaquille O’Neal, who actually probably is, as he says, “Beyoncé’s biggest fan literally,” is lip-syncing her songs again. This time, he passionately acted like he was singing along to I’d Rather Go Blind. 

The great thing about this video is that while Shaq is doing his thing, the TV is on with that great Backstreet Boys State Farm ad that we all love playing, and there are other people conversing. No one is fazed by Shaq’s shenanigans.

The video is captioned, “I rather be blind then to not sing my favorite artist @beyonce song #beyoncesbiggestfanliterally.”

Here’s another time Shaq lip-synced Beyoncé’s All Night: 

LOS ANGELES — Shaquille O’Neal’s first response when asked about the recent interview in which Kobe said he would’ve picked LeBron James over Shaq if he were an All-Star captain in 2005, was pretty much perfect.

As he was standing in the middle of the American Express Experience in Downtown LA on Thursday, while talking to For The Win on behalf of the credit card company, Shaq said:

“If you look at the rules, whoever got the most votes got to be the pick, that would’ve been me. But, I’m not offended by that. He (Kobe) gotta pick who he gotta pick. Being that we played together all the time, he wants to play with somebody different. I understand that.”

Additionally, Shaq, who was wearing the biggest pair of Toms I have ever seen, talked to FTW about his best advice for parents trying to help their kids succeed in sports and the best basketball advice he has ever received.

He also said that he’s going to take this chair from inside the Lakers vault at the Amex Experience home with him when the All-Star Weekend is over.

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for American Express

As a 15-time All-Star, what’s your favorite All-Star moment?

Any time I was the host, I always tried to show out and make sure I get MVP, make sure players got around safely, gave them my restaurant connections. It’s just the time to showcase yourself for the fans, and you have to be proud to be selected as an All-Star so you just go out and represent, just do the best you can. My favorite part would be all the ones I got MVP in.

Do you think guys should be playing harder?

Yep, definitely. A lot of guys worry about getting hurt. One thing you can never prevent is a freak accident. Guys talking about getting hurt, they’re actually talking about they’re not preventable. If you’re blowing hamstrings you’re not in good enough shape to be named an All-Star. Guys should just go out and compete and play hard.

How long is it going to be until your son Shareef (a talented 18-year-old who committed to play basketball at Arizona last year) is in the All-Star Game?

I don’t know. Three years of college, rookie games, less than 10 years, I’ll say that.

What’s your best advice for other sports parents trying to help their kids succeed?

Don’t push it. Don’t pressure them. Us as parents, everything we wanted, we accomplished by ourselves. You gotta let them want it. The good thing about Shareef is that as a father with connections, I’m proud to say I never had to call an AAU coach to say put him on the team, never had to call a college and say, ‘Hey, you want to look at my boy?’ Because he’s worked hard, he’s done it his way, and as a parent, you can sit back. To me, it’s deja vu parenting, same thing my father did. I focus on education. I told all my kids: ‘We don’t need another NBA player. We need some lawyers. We need some hedge fund managers. We need some real estate professionals. We need some engineers.’ That’s what I really push them in. I don’t really push them in sports.

What was it like filming the Uncle Drew movie with so many other sports legends?

It was long and fun. You get there at 8, takes three hours to put the makeup on. Every day. So 11, then you gotta do the table read, 12. It was very long, but it was fun. Great script, Kyrie did a great job, Nate Robinson, Lisa Leslie, C Webb, Reggie Miller, it was actually fun to shoot.

Who had the best acting skills?

Me. I got 17 movies.

Your 46th birthday is coming up, is there anything else you want to accomplish? You’ve done almost everything already.

Just have fun, I take advantage of good opportunities that are going to help people. I’m focusing on doing stuff like for example, my Shaq shoes. There’s too many superstars charging kids $100 for shoes, so I’ll be the only one charging people $30 for shoes, and that’s been a very, very successful business for me. Obviously I didn’t do it for money because I’m making far less money than I did, but social change, kids can be proud about wearing something that looks like it’s $100 but is very affordable, so whenever I focus on things like that, businesses are always good.

What’s the best basketball advice you’ve ever received?

Best basketball advice I have ever received is pressure is when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. If you walk around the streets and see a homeless guy, that’s pressure. When you get paid millions of dollars to play ball, shouldn’t be any pressure. My father told me that, he took me out on the street and we had a conversation with a homeless family. I was like I’m just a spoiled brat right now. This is pressure, so that’s the best advice I’ve ever received.

What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled?

I can’t tell you because it’s rated R.

Shaq said he wished he could throw a party in the American Express Experience space. Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for American Express

Let’s see Charles Barkley and his fellow NBA on TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal go at it for another on-air back-and-forth.

This one started with Shaq sitting down with Kobe Bryant and admitting he took his summers off because he had Kobe (which, of course, ticked off Bryant):

While sitting outside the Staples Center, Barkley said he was glad the two had cleared up their “misunderstanding,” and Barkley eventually pointed out that if O’Neal and Bryant had sat down while they were on the Los Angeles Lakers together, they might have won more.

O’Neal seemed pretty mad with his response:

“There was never ever a misunderstanding … We won three out of four (championships), I know what I’m talking about. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way. We didn’t have a disagreement, we had two guys, two competitive guys, alpha males.”

Eventually, you know where it went: O’Neal noted Barkley never won a ring, and then pointed to his statue outside the Lakers’ home.

Lakers legends Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal sat down for a conversation in Los Angeles during All-Star weekend that aired on TNT Saturday, and the former teammates discussed some of their biggest wins, the end of the Shaq-Kobe era, and the first time they had a fight.

“We were playing a pick-up game, it was during the lockout season [1998-1999]. Southwest College, we were playing a pickup game.  We were on opposite teams, and trash-talking.

And you kept saying ‘yeah, take that little [expletive]. Take that little [expletive].’

I’m looking around, ‘oh [expletive], he’s talking to me.’ I said ‘well hold on, ain’t going to be too many more of those ‘little [expletives].’ And what’d you say? ‘Well what you going to to about it?’

The next thing I knew I saw a big hand coming this way, and I remember going [the other way]….”

Bryant said that the fight was a turning point in their relationship.

“I’m looking at this and I’m saying ‘man, he wants this thing. It affects him. It consumes him.’ And then from that moment on I knew we spoke the same language.”

Charles Barkley turned 55 on Tuesday, and his NBA on TNT partner Shaquille O’Neal celebrated it with … an epic troll.

Shaq took to Twitter and wished Barkley a happy birthday by sharing a photoshopped version of the amazing Chadwick Boseman Rolling Stone cover, except Barkley was “The Fat Panther.”

Brutal. Also, a Spice Adams reference!

Here’s the original cover:

After a break in the Cavaliers-Wizards game on Thursday night, Ernie Johnson started talking about how Shaquille O’Neal got gum stuck in his beard when they were off the air. Shaq responded by telling Ernie, “Snitches get stitches.”

But then, the footage was pulled up so everyone could see for themselves as Shaq said, “Aw, you little snitches.”

They also showed another camera angle. The gum was really stuck there for a bit.

You can’t get away with anything on their set.

Shaquille O’Neal is now the proud owner of the most beautiful treehouse ever.

On the season finale of Treehouse Masters airing this Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern on Animal Planet, Shaq gets one with a bar, lounge, and — of course — high ceilings.

Check this thing out:

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Animal Planet

Shaq, I’d be more than happy to live there and pay rent.

Shaquille O’Neal wants to clear something up with the world: He isn’t cross-eyed.

Why would everyone think that? It’s because master impersonator Jay Pharoah did his Shaq on Saturday Night Live with his eyes askew years ago:

While on the set of SNL Thursday night, O’Neal gave his take: The impression earned a 6 out of 10 rating, then the Hall of Famer proved he wasn’t cross-eyed:

Charles Barkley used his opportunity hosting Saturday Night Live to do the one thing he loves doing the most: Make fun of Shaquille O’Neal.

Barkley joined Bill Hader and Kenan Thompson in a segment parodying Inside The NBA and did his best impersonation of his longtime co-analyst and nemesis.

“It’s me. Shaq. I’m here now, I’m on TV.”

Screenshot

The segment also did an incredible job of making light of Ernie Johnson’s efforts to keep the show focused on basketball when Shaq and Barkley tend to wander off on tangents.

“Why do you guys hate talking about basketball so much?” a beleaguered Johnson/Hader asked.

“Because,” Thompson/Barkley said. “We played basketball. We don’t want to talk about it. It would be like you talking about shopping for ugly ties.”

Shaq spent part of his 46th birthday releasing a bunch of balloons. He shared video of the moment and said that there’s $500 tied to the strings.

The Hall of Famer said that if you’re the lucky person to find the balloons and money, he wants you to let him know.

The balloons and money could easily fall in the trash, get stuck in a tree or get lost somewhere, so hopefully they do actually make it to a person.

Shaq also added the hashtag “46 and fine as hell” on Instagram.

When the legendary big man talked to For The Win during NBA All-Star Weekend, I asked him what he hopes to accomplish in his life now that he’s turning 46 and has already done almost everything. Here’s what he said:

“Just have fun, I take advantage of good opportunities that are going to help people. I’m focusing on doing stuff like for example, my Shaq shoes. There’s too many superstars charging kids $100 for shoes, so I’ll be the only one charging people $30 for shoes, and that’s been a very, very successful business for me. Obviously I didn’t do it for money because I’m making far less money than I did, but social change, kids can be proud about wearing something that looks like it’s $100 but is very affordable, so whenever I focus on things like that, businesses are always good.”

He also may or may not be going after an Oscar.

Happy Birthday, Shaq!

Shaq was about to take a giant bite out of the topper of the birthday cake that he was given on the NBA on TNT set on Tuesday night. Then, his mom walked in.

He immediately stopped what he was doing and put the cake topper right back where it was as Isiah Thomas laughed so hard about how fast the big man straightened up — you cannot misbehave in front of your mom.

But it was amazing to see Shaq’s mom hug everyone and see her son at work on his birthday. That cake looked awesome too.

Oscar winner (!!) Kobe Bryant stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk about winning the award for Best Animated Short Film, but he also revealed what it was like getting into an altercation with Shaquille O’Neal back when they were Lakers teammates.

He said O’Neal threw the first punch and that Bryant couldn’t reach him to retaliate. And years later, when the pair met up for a televised conversation, he picked up Shaq’s enormous hand and thought, “I must have been the craziest 19-year-old in the world.”

Here’s that initial chat about the melee that aired on TNT:

And here’s Bryant talking about his incredible Oscars night, and Kimmel gave him a pair of Lakers jerseys to put on his award:

In the wake of the tragic Parkland shooting that resulted in the deaths of 17 people, Shaquille O’Neal believes that the government should respond by increasing funding to local police departments to place officers inside and outside of schools. O’Neal, who lives in Florida, spoke about the shooting in an interview with Rita Cosby.

“I think the quick fix now, the government should give law enforcement more money. Give more money, you recruit more people, and the guys that are not ready to go on the streets, you put them in front of the schools. You put ’em in front of the schools, you put ’em behind the schools, you put ’em inside the schools.”

O’Neal has been involved in various police departments over the course of his career, and has announced his intention to run for sheriff in Henry County, Georgia in 2020.

O’Neal also doubted that a ban on guns would solve the problem.

“Something has to be done. You hear a lot of people talking about getting these guns off the streets. The only problem with that is there’s 15 million of them already out there on the streets. And then another problem is if you ban them, then you’re going to create an underground market.”

Shaq says he wishes he would be able to participate in the March for Our Lives on March 24th.

“Hopefully it sends a message to the powers that be. Cause we have to stop this.”

While hosting the Players Only pregame show on TNT with Isiah Thomas and Baron Davis, Shaquille O’Neal decided to get a facial … on the desk. Note how Shaq nearly takes up the entire desk.

I guess this is what happens when Ernie Johnson isn’t around to keep things under control.

No, he didn’t remain like that for the entire show.

Also, Shaq said the usual host, Chris Webber, should’ve never taken the night off and that he’d take Webber’s job as “the black Ernie Johnson.”