Shaquille O'Neal has officially signed on to host the third annual NBA Awards on June 24. The Hall of Fame center revealed the news during Wednesday night's edition of Inside The NBA - but of course he couldn't just make the announcement with a cookie-cutter press release.
Instead, Shaq had his co-hosts, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, read some very kind, and very scripted, comments about him from the teleprompter. And then he brought out a marching band. And then came the confetti.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1126509783706554368
Previous hosts for the NBA Awards include Drake, who hosted the inaugural event in 2017, and Anthony Anderson, who hosted in 2018.
The league has not yet announced the finalists for all of the awards that will be handed out on June 24, but the categories are as follows:
Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award, Most Improved Player, Coach of the Year, Basketball Executive of the Year, Sportsmanship Award, Teammate of the Year, All-Rookie Team, All-Defensive Team, and NBA Cares Community Assist Award.
