The baseball skills of current or former NBA players are often not very good, with many, such as Nick Young at a Los Angeles Dodgers game a few years back throwing out a poor — and comical — ceremonial first pitch.
“Inside the NBA,” TNT’s postgame show, put that to the test Monday night with analysts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, and host Ernie Johnson. The results were exactly what you would have expected.
There is a reason all three of them chose basketball over baseball, and this is that reason, although Smith actually had a decent arm despite it being inaccurate, via NBA on TNT:
The #InsideTheNBA crew put their ⚾️ skills to the test 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/VjZNpIvT4P
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 15, 2018
They also showed videos of all three analysts throwing out first pitches at different stadiums, with O’Neal’s being at Marlins Park this past week, Barkley’s being at Wrigley Field and Smith’s at Dodger Stadium.
O’Neal’s pitch was actually right down the middle, although he wasn’t exactly throwing off the mound. Plus, he took some swings in the batting cages and did not have an impressive showing.
Another cool story of an NBA player throwing out a first pitch came last month at Dodger Stadium when Los Angeles Lakers G League call-up Andre Ingram was tabbed with the honor.
Ingram spent 10 seasons in the D/G League before finally getting a chance in the NBA with the Lakers for the last two games of the 2017-18 season. His story is reminiscent of many MLB players who spend years in the Minor Leagues before finally getting their call.
