National Basketball Association

That time Shaquille O'Neal didn't know where the Warriors played

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Shaquille O’Neal has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was a dominant center, but he didn’t know where exactly the Golden State Warriors played.

The Golden State Warriors have moved around quite a bit over the course of their franchise history. They started off in Philadelphia. They moved to San Francisco in 1962, but played their games around the whole Bay Area.. In the 1971-72 season, they most played in Oakland and in the following season the Oakland Arena became their exclusive home court.

Shaquille O’Neal was just inducted into the Hall of Fame. The big man was arguably the most dominant figure to ever step onto a basketball court. He was truly a man among boys.

After “The Diesel” decided to call it quits, he took his big personality to the studio (no, not a recording studio. He, thankfully, left music behind). He joined TNT’s popular Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith. He is part of their commentary crew that spends more time messing with each other than talking about basketball.

Two years ago, following a Warriors win over the Brooklyn Nets at home, a very interesting fact came up. The highlight reel started with Hulk Hogan hyping up the Oracle Arena crowd prior to the game. He said that “I know that there’s going to be a war in Oakland, right here brother.”

Barkley interjected that his little pregame speech wasn’t very good. Johnson started to comment on the highlight of Brook Lopez knocking down a hook shot when O’Neal cut him off. He asked “are they in Oakland?”

The crew laughed at him, of course. O’Neal, who played and dominated the Warriors many times over the course of his career, didn’t know where the team played. He thought that they were in San Francisco, claiming that he always stayed there when he was in town to play the Warriors. He didn’t know that they commuted to a different city to play the team.

It’s not as bad as Klay Thompson forgetting that there was even a team in Oakland, but it’s close. O’Neal definitely made the right call when deciding to be a basketball player and not a geography teacher.