TNT host Ernie Johnson did not appear on Tuesday night’s Inside the NBA as he and his family mourn the loss of their beloved son, Michael, who passed away at 33 from muscular dystrophy, a condition that left him wheelchair-bound most of his life. Before Tuesday’s game between the Mavericks and visiting Miami Heat, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith shared their memories of Michael, who Johnson and his wife Cheryl adopted from Romania at a young age.
Still grieving from his sister’s passing last year, which came on the heels of losing his former Lakers teammate, Kobe Bryant, in a tragic helicopter accident, O’Neal knows the pain Johnson must be feeling. “Ernie is a brother. He’s someone I look up to and I’m sure we all look up to. When I got the text that day, it just hurt,” said O’Neal, recalling conversations he and Michael used to have about cars. “Take your time coming back. We love and we miss you.”
Smith, Johnson’s TNT colleague of over 20 years, expressed a similar sentiment, noting that the tightknit, family dynamic of Inside the NBA is both a gift and a curse. “When you spend time with—20 years or more—with someone, you’re part of every moment in their life. When Ernie wins his first Emmy, we’re there. When he has his first grandchild, we’re there,” explained Smith. “But then the curse is, when you love someone, you’re part of these moments. When [Barkley’s] grandma passed. When my mom passed away. Kobe and [Shaq’s] sister. And now Michael.”
“For them to adopt a kid they know has special needs, to change his life forever. And [Cheryl] said in that phone call, ‘I would spend the rest of my life wondering what happened to that kid,’” said Barkley, marveling at the sacrifices made by Johnson and his family to assure Michael the best life possible. “But she doesn’t have to worry or wonder because they gave Michael a wonderful life. They loved him.”
Michael’s overwhelming sense of positivity, bringing joy to all around him in spite of his physical limitations, is what Smith admired most about him. “When Ernie would bring him, he and his wife, they would come around, with Michael, we always talk about lighting up a room. But it’s a gravitational pull. Like some people have a gravitational pull no matter who they are and how they are. And Michael had a gravitational pull, that you would move towards him,” said Smith. “Ernie is usually the person that we lean on. So, Ernie, this is the first time you need to lean on us.”
Tuesday’s touching segment condensed everything that’s so great about Inside the NBA into six, heartfelt minutes. The crew’s honest, no-holds-barred analysis is a nightly staple but, unlike many of its competitors, Inside the NBA strikes the perfect balance between playful banter and deftly addressing real-life issues, frequently touching on sensitive subjects such as race, politics and social injustice. The secret sauce, as alluded to by Smith, is the family atmosphere adopted by TNT, not having to manufacture chemistry as most studio shows do, pairing on-air personalities with wildly different backgrounds and perspectives in hopes their audience prefers celebrity over substance.
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