Dwight Howard stepped in for Shaquille O’Neal on Tuesday night’s NBA on TNT broadcast. With O’Neal missing his second consecutive show due to other work obligations, the network turned to Howard to help round out the panel alongside Ernie Johnson, Jalen Rose, and Charles Barkley.

Howard quickly found his footing alongside the rest of the TNT crew, but it didn’t take long for things to get interesting. During the broadcast, Charles Barkley revealed that Howard had asked a surprising question backstage — one that caught Barkley so off guard, he felt compelled to bring it up on live television and call Howard out for it in front of the audience.

“I got a problem with you, Dwight. Guess what he asked me in the back?” Charles Barkley asked during the show… “See, we got joked up. This dude asked me about Wilt Chamberlain. … I said, ‘Dude, how old do you think I am?'”

For clarity, Charles Barkley, now 62 years old, played in the NBA from 1984 until 2000. By the time Barkley entered the league as the fifth overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers, Wilt Chamberlain had already been retired for over a decade, having stepped away from the game in 1973. After mistakenly suggesting their careers overlapped, Dwight Howard quickly acknowledged the mix-up and apologized to Barkley on-air.

“I thought I asked the question,” said a laughing Dwight Howard. “I thought about it. I said, ‘Chuck ain't that old.' … That's my bad.”

Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal's history

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The group eventually laughed the moment off, though Charles Barkley seemed mildly irritated by Howard’s mistake. Nevertheless, Barkley handled it with class, accepting the apology and sharing that their backstage chat had been going well—until Howard unexpectedly brought up Wilt Chamberlain.

It all seemed lighthearted in the end, and there’s no indication of any lingering tension following Howard’s sincere mix-up.

With his recent Hall of Fame induction and increased media visibility, Howard's public image is undergoing a shift. Once seen as a locker room headache or someone who didn’t live up to his full potential, he’s now working to redefine how he’s remembered. His guest spot on Inside the NBA may have been a one-off, but it also felt like a possible audition for more permanent roles in broadcasting.

Given their complicated history, speculation continues to swirl about whether Shaquille O’Neal approved of Howard stepping in. Still, the fact that Howard filled Shaq’s seat during his absence sends a message—intentional or not—that the network, and perhaps even Shaq himself, is open to letting bygones be bygones, at least in the public eye.

Some fans viewed the moment as a sign of peace between Shaq and Dwight Howard, while others saw it as a one-time gesture that demonstrated how far the two former rivals had come. There were also those who believed the producers of Inside the NBA capitalized on the opportunity, using their reconciled relationship to boost interest and ratings.