The NBA on TNT is back, but Shaquille O'Neal is missing from tonight's episode as he's reportedly sick after the All-Star Weekend festivities. With that said, his co-stars chimed in and started teasing the 7-foot-1 bigman for not being able to come to work despite having a decent amount of breaks.

Ernie Johnson, Kenny "The Jet" Smith and Charles Barkley all had something to say about O'Neal's absence tonight. With only 25 games left, they were hoping to start the second half of the season strong. After finding out why Shaq wasn't with them, Chuck started to doubt his excuse.

"Poor baby. Just go down the street, you'll see him, at the hookah bar."

Kenny joined in and even called Shaq an idiot.

"If he took off and stayed in Atlanta, he's an idiot... He's not sick. He's Superman, Superman doesn't get sick."

"Superman doesn't get sick" 🤣

@SHAQ is out sick after All-Star weekend and the fellas have some thoughts

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"Superman doesn't get sick" 🤣@SHAQ is out sick after All-Star weekend and the fellas have some thoughts 😂 https://t.co/YfiSI9ihmO

EJ even had to poke fun at the four-time champion.

"Hey Shaq, man up. Come on man, I know this is backbreaking work, but come on, man!"

All jokes aside, we all hope to see Dr. O'Neal back with his friends on TNT.

Shaquille O'Neal believes that LeBron James deserves a statue outside of the Crypto.com arena

The exterior of the Crypto.com arena is surrounded by statues of past greats of the Lakers. As the most dominant player in the history of the league, Shaquille O'Neal earned himself his own statue despite how things ended with him and the organization.

He went into detail about it in an interview with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson.

"I’m not the one that you should ask on that question, however, he did win a championship with the Lakers. A lot of people say that don’t count well if you can’t count his then you can’t count Mr. Tim Duncan’s bubble championship. That’s right, I said it. So if we’re gonna count Tim Duncan’s championship that he had during the lockout year, you have to count that." O'Neal said.

“A lot of people say that don’t count & if you can’t count his then you can’t count Mr. Tim Duncan’s bubble championship. That’s right, I said it!”

"So LeBron has won as a Laker, he broke the record as a Laker. Would I oppose him having a statue? I would not. If they wanna give him a statue I’d be fine with that. Great player, great for the league, and he did what he was supposed to do as a Laker."

Right now, LeBron James is the current superstar who's doing his best to lead the team into relevancy. James was able to do just that in his second season in Los Angeles when they won the 2020 championship against the Miami Heat. Due to this, O'Neal believes that building a statue for LeBron is the right move.

Also read: Shaquille O'Neal shares terrifying moment going against Michael Jordan: “The first time I felt fear…There’s God”