Shaquille O'Neal Chooses Next Step

By Christine Thomasos, Christian Post Reporter Friday, July 15, 2011

After 19 years in the NBA, four-time world championship award-winner Shaquille O’Neal announced his next big career move on Thursday. O’Neal will join the cast of the emmy-award winning show, ‘Inside The NBA.’

O’Neal, a 15-time NBA All-Star center, has been named a full-time television NBA analyst for Turner Sports. Turner provides NBA coverage for TNT, NBA TV and NBA.com, which will also be a part of O’Neal’s job description.

O’Neal expressed excitement for his new position on Thursday.

“I can't wait to begin my new career with Turner," O'Neal said. "Over the past several years the team at Turner has taken the NBA and entertainment, in general, to a whole new level. I'm grateful for the opportunity to join the amazing team at Inside the NBA and I hope I can further the fans experience on a regular basis."

Although the former NBA center announced his retirement this past June, fans will get the opportunity to see him during the 2011-2012 NBA regular season, The Finals, All-Star Weekend and the NBA Draft.

The new Turner analyst will join the likes of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, at the five-time Emmy award winning show.

"We are thrilled to have Shaquille O'Neal join Turner Sports and our marquee roster of announcers and analysts, said David Levy, the president of sales, distribution and sports for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., "His unique insights, perspective as one of the league's all-time great players and personality will be the perfect complement to our award-winning studio team of Ernie, Kenny and Charles, as well as to our programming on NBA TV and NBA.com."

O’Neal’s new co-workers said they supported the new addition to their team. Smith even gave the seven footer a new nickname, “The Big Analyst.”

Despite some claims that Barkley’s strong personality may conflict with O’Neal, the former power forward seemed to be excited with the new addition to the cast.

“He is a great addition to our team and in the immortal words of (New York Jets linebacker) Bart Scott ... CAN’T WAIT,” Barkley said.