TNT's NBA playoffs analysis took a turn for the bizarre at half-time of the Houston Rockets' defeat of Russell Westbrook's Oklahoma City Thunder last night.
Leading MVP candidates James Harden and Westbrook squared off in Houston with the latter's Thunder facing a 'win or go home' scenario, with Harden's hometown Rockets winning 105-99 and taking the series 4-1.
At the break, Shaquille O'Neal was explaining why the Rockets were struggling to contain Westbrook 'behind the screen', or something to that effect, when suddenly - and inexplicably - he broke into song about the MVP favourite, with the seemingly previously informed producers applying autotune to his voice live on air.
Shaq's fellow pundits were left aghast as he made absolute shite of Matthew Wilder's Break My Stride, incorporating Westbrook's form into the lyrics.
As the rest of the panel came to terms with such frankly weird developments, Charles Barkley - in the Graeme Souness role, if you like - tried to reestablish some integrity to proceedings. The producers, however, weren't quite ready to return to normality, and much to Barkley's ire they ramped up the autotune during his attempt to make a cogent basketball-related point.
Charles Barkley autotune
Death of Auto-Tune ? ? pic.twitter.com/ticmq8JNvh
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 26, 2017
Barkley's response - "I'm trying to make a basketball point" - was wonderful, but the clip is even better if you watch his disdainful reaction throughout the entire clip.
Thank you, Shaq.
