Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith debating how gas prices work will make you so much dumber

Thursday night was a light one in the NBA playoffs, with only one game going on, so Inside the NBA didn’t have too much hoops to discuss…not that the TNT panel ever needs an excuse to talk irreverently about subjects other than basketball.

And so for a solid two and a half minutes during their show, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal debated how to save money on gas, while Charles Barkley cracked up and Ernie Johnson gave up. Behold, one of the most ridiculous, frustrating, mind-numbing and ultimately hilarious sports-show clips you will ever see.

Shaq’s out here crunching some numbers for Kenny. 🤔😂 pic.twitter.com/jNgBYFFwYj

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 27, 2018

The issue here, as best we can tell, is that Shaq thinks Kenny will save money on gas by filling the tank with $20 of fuel instead of $80, while Kenny points out that if he fills the tank less, he will simply have to fill it more often. Neither of the two analysts expresses his point particularly clearly, but we can say this with confidence: $80 of gas is $80 of gas, regardless of whether you fill your tank once or four different times. Oh and, for what it’s worth, half of 80 is 40.

This debate left us with a lot of questions, but two stand out above all: 1. Doesn’t Kenny make enough money not to sweat an $80 gas bill? 2. Doesn’t Shaq make enough money that he should know how numbers work?

As is often the case, Ernie pretty much speaks for all of us.