Who he coach for? Shaq's gaffe shows he doesn't watch NBA games

During the postgame show, O'Neal was talking about Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham when he added, "I like what Chauncey's doing."

Unfortunately, Billups coaches the Portland Trail Blazers, not the Pistons. This is not a new development. Billups has been coaching the Blazers for four seasons. The Pistons coach is J.B. Bickerstaff, who has led the Pistons to a 37-29 record — which is already 23 wins more than last season.

Bickerstaff deserves compliments, but O'Neal didn't notice until Candace Parker corrected him. Vince Carter had to give O'Neal the correct name, at which point O'Neal defensively asserted, "I don't watch Detroit."

That's a problem that goes beyond simply messing up the name of a coach. "Inside the NBA" is the NBA's flagship studio show, but O'Neal and Charles Barkley don't seem to pay a lot of attention to the games and players. In 2023, Barkley claimed to be watching hockey rather than the NBA playoff game TNT was broadcasting that night.

It's one thing to ignore the lottery-bound teams of the NBA, but the Pistons are even with the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. They'll almost certainly make the playoffs, with a chance to host a first-round series. Their turnaround is one of the biggest stories in the NBA this season.

Declaring "I don't watch Detroit" might make O'Neal feel like he's too good to pay attention to teams he doesn't deem good enough, but it just makes him look uninformed. It's impossible to imagine a prominent NFL analyst not knowing who is coaching a playoff team, and then defiantly asserting that it doesn't matter since they don't watch that team.

There's a big difference between Barkley not knowing deep reserves on the end of the bench and O'Neal declaring that certain playoff teams are beneath his notice.

Teams that aren't in major markets still deserve the attention of basketball fans and media. If O'Neal really isn't watching this year's Pistons team, he's the one missing out.