Shaquille O’Neal and Inside the NBA’s All-Star teams have fans shaking their heads: “Aging stars vs rising stars vs international stars gimmick!”

Inside the NBA crew of Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny were to draft three teams for the NBA All-Star game.

Shaquille O’Neal and Inside the NBA’s All-Star teams have fans shaking their heads: “Aging stars vs rising stars vs international stars gimmick!”

Shaquille O'Neal and Inside the NBA crew picked All-Star teams

The NBA All-Star weekend is in a few days, which meant Shaquille O’Neal and his colleagues on Inside the NBA had to draft them into three teams. Earlier today they went about their task of drafting the teams with each analyst selecting eight players each.

The last time the crew of Inside the NBA were part of a draft was when they were amongst many teams selecting players from the NBA’s 75th Anniversary squad. In that draft, the competition meant they had to select the best players available.

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They also had to make sure the players they select were complementing each other. In this draft, fans were expecting the trio of O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley to do the same. O’Neal started off by drafting LeBron James. Smith selected Anthony Edwards as his first pick. To this, Barkley went with Nikola Jokic.

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Then O’Neal continued with his trend of picking veteran players and went with Steph Curry. He then added Anthony Davis, James Harden, Damian Lillard and the two Boston Celtics star forwards. In the meantime, Barkley added Giannis Antetokounmpo. Smith continued to pick Jalen Brunson.

At the end, it seemed as if Shaquille O’Neal had picked all the older stars. Charles Barkley picked the international players, and Kenny Smith went for the rising stars. The trio did their best to continue showing to the viewers that they were actually contemplating each pick.

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However, it was evident that a theme was forming. The trio picked teams as per how the All-Star game was to be played. Three teams making up of the OGs, the Rising Stars and the International stars. The problem fans had was that this was all too obvious.

Fans troll NBA All-Star selections in staged draft

Fans felt the NBA was deliberately trying to design its three teams. In the process, in trying to make it a bit more entertaining, they assigned the Inside the NBA crew to make it look as if they were the ones who selected the teams. Fans knowing that the NBA is trying hard to bring viewers back felt as if the league was trying too hard.

They took to social media to call out the NBA as well as the Inside the NBA crew for their blatant attempt to try and misguide viewers. Check out examples of such comments below.

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Fans would have liked it if the NBA just allowed a fair draft. That way it would have been more entertaining. Kevin Durant had already expressed his displeasure when he heard that the Inside the NBA crew were drafting players to this NBA All-star game. Now it seems fans too are not happy with how this turned out.