Shaq Takes Shot at ESPN's NBA Studio Shows: TRAINA THOUGHTS

'Inside the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal says his TV competitors are 'terrible'

1. Normally, the Inside the NBA cast member who provides unfiltered soundbites is Charles Barkley, but today we have a haymaker from Shaquille O'Neal.

During a media event on Wednesday, Shaq was asked about other NBA studio shows and he pulled no punches in assessing how they stack up against TNT's popular foursome of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles and himself. He even used one of his colleague's favorite words to sum up the competition.

Clearly, this is a direct shot at ESPN's constantly changing pregame and halftime shows since that's the only other network that airs NBA games. In this time where everyone is afraid to say something inflammatory, it's refreshing to see Shaq give an honest assessment.

2. Speaking of Inside the NBA, the show is celebrating its 30th anniversary this season. TNT unveiled this tribute video on Tuesday and there's a major cameo at the 3:17 mark.

3. It looks like the Nationals are going to win the World Series. And even if they don't, they've already won the title of best celebrators in sports.

We've seen Brian Dozier's shirtless twerk.

We've seen Stephen Strasburg and Gerado Parra cut a rug.

And Wednesday night, we got a big group hug for Strasburg.

There was a big party in the dugout.

And then there was this from Howie Kendrick and Adam Eaton.

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A post shared by Cut4 (@mlbcut4)

4. The NBA seems to be taking a page out of the NFL's book at banning all fun. Clippers star Patrick Beverley was actually fined $25,000 for throwing the ball into the stands after his team's win against the Lakers on Tuesday. So lame.

Here’s video of the play, where Patrick Beverley celebrates and throws the ball into the stands after the buzzer has sounded and the #Clippers defeated the Lakers. pic.twitter.com/jyI5ZRiPQp

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 23, 2019

5. MLB World Series ratings are not off to a great start, as you can see in this tweet:

World Series ties lowest-ever Game 1 rating:
-- Second-least watched Game 1, ahead of 2014
-- Down 11% from last year
-- Among ten lowest rated WS games of any kind
-- DC turns in highest MLB rating since 2001
-- Game beats Lakers-Clippers by 240%
https://t.co/vA6yUJ55Tz

— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) October 23, 2019

Game 2 on Wednesday night didn't fare much better, drawing 11.8 million viewers. 

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features a great conversation with High Noon co-host Bomani Jones. Jones talked about how he navigates controversial topics at ESPN, the LeBron James backlash over the NBA/China story, why the media has punted on the Tyler Skaggs story, why being too smart is bad TV, Eddie Murphy's comeback, why Stevie Wonder may not be blind and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: One week from today is Halloween and quite frankly, I don't want to wait seven more days to post what might be the greatest scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm history.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.