During the Knicks' win over the Pacers on the 19th, Lin Yi had an awkward moment. While trying to break a full-court press with a two-handed dribble, the ball clipped his own foot and rolled away.
It was the kind of turnover that happens every night in the league. Normally, no one would even mention it.
Unfortunately for Lin Yi, Shaquille O'Neal did.
Instead of pulling clips from JaVale McGee's extensive highlight reel of mistakes, Shaq zeroed in on Lin Yi's slip and featured it on that week's Shaqtin' a Fool.
That… annoyed him a little.
Because of Lin Yi's popularity, the episode's ratings spiked. Lin Yi himself wasn't actually angry, but when reporters brought it up afterward, he leaned into it with a straight face and a grin.
"There's no way around it," Lin Yi said. "When you're good, people notice everything—even the smallest mistake."
Reporters: "..."
Why does that sound like a personal attack?
Still, Lin Yi wasn't wrong. Every single day in the NBA, someone dribbles the ball off their own foot. These guys are giants—there's a reason their shoes look like boats.
The difference was that Lin Yi did it on national television, and Shaq clearly wasn't going to let it slide.
"Trying to break records?" O'Neal warned on air. "Then you'd better take care of the ball. One turnover, and you're going straight on the wall. Detention."
Lin Yi knew Shaq wasn't the type to hold grudges. Besides, attention to detail was practically a Knicks tradition. After being teammates with O'Neal for a year, Lin Yi understood exactly what this was about.
Shaq wanted Barkley to kiss a donkey again.
Honestly, Lin Yi thought, this bet doesn't even make sense. I'm the one deciding who kisses what. I could make both of them do it if I really wanted to.
As Lin Yi's birthday approached, fans and haters alike started paying close attention to the ongoing bet between Barkley and O'Neal. Some people even tried to analyze Lin Yi's birthday myth from a scientific angle.
Chris Webber offered a serious take.
"Lin Yi works extremely hard every summer," Webber said. "He always comes into the season fresh and explosive. Since his birthday falls early in the season, it makes sense that his performance spikes around that time."
Shaq wasn't buying it.
"If that logic works," O'Neal shot back, "then why didn't Kobe have an explosive period? That man lived in the gym."
But despite his confidence, Shaq felt a faint sense of unease. He knew Lin Yi better than most—and breaking records was kind of Lin Yi's specialty.
If Lin Yi really did break another record by accident, Shaq's standing on TNT might sink even lower.
No. Impossible.
He shook the thought away.
The great Shaquille O'Neal—once the most dominant center the league had ever seen—was not about to start believing in metaphysics.
. . .
On the 21st, the Knicks cruised past the New Orleans Hornets on the road.
Danilo Gallinari was settling in nicely. As one of the Hornets' leaders, he and Lou Williams had pretty much taken control of the locker room.
Rookie Austin Rivers, drafted that season, had naturally fallen into Gallinari's orbit. Before earning his reputation, Rivers knew better than to act up. Gallinari was popular, experienced, and an NBA Champion.
Before tip-off, Lin Yi and Chris Paul somehow ended up betting money again on people missing shots.
Lin Yi pocketed an easy $2,000.
Back to basketball.
In what turned into a stress-free win, Lin Yi put up 34 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. By the third quarter, the Hornets were already waving the white flag.
With the Western Conference reshuffled this season, it was clear this Hornets team would struggle to recreate last year's miracle run.
And once again, Lin Yi narrowly missed setting a record.
As it became clear during the broadcast, Barkley's smile slowly faded.
. . .
On the 22nd, the Lakers were blown out at home by the Mavericks. By halftime, Barkley had completely lost the energy to complain about Los Angeles.
Shaq, on the other hand, was having the time of his life.
After Dwight Howard joined the Lakers in the summer, comparisons between Howard and Shaq had been everywhere—and Shaq hated every second of it.
"In what world," Shaq said with a snort, "are kindergarten-level post moves getting compared to me, Big Diesel? There are levels to this game."
For once, even Barkley didn't argue.
As the new season rolled on and teams across the league pushed hard to close the gap on the Knicks, one thing caught everyone off guard: theLakers were the first to stumble.
Nine games in, the Lakers were sitting at 3–6. Kobe Bryant's postgame demeanor told the story. Early in the season, he spoke calmly about chemistry and patience—"We'll figure it out." Lately, he'd stopped talking altogether, declining interviews and heading straight back to the locker room.
And the trouble wasn't limited to the standings.
Reports surfaced that during a recent practice, Kobe had taken issue with Dwight Howard's laid-back attitude, feeling that Howard treated everything too lightly. Howard, for his part, felt Kobe was too rigid, stuck in an old-school mindset. The exchange reportedly got heated, and the two left the facility separately.
Normally, what happens in a locker room stays there. Too many things are private, too sensitive. This time, though, the story leaked—allegedly from a bench player. The Lakers quickly denied everything, calling the report fabricated.
But once the rumor was out, the damage was done. Trust inside the locker room took a hit, and no matter how firmly the team denied it, people around the league believed there was at least some truth behind it.
Caught between internal tension and outside scrutiny, the Lakers found themselves in trouble just weeks into the season. Kobe's patience with Howard looked thin, and history suggested that time wasn't likely to fix it. Only later would Kobe fully realize just how rare—and how functional—his partnership with O'Neal had really been.
Out west, the picture was getting messier by the day.
The Warriors opened the season 6–3, with Stephen Curry playing at a level that earned him Western Conference Player of the Week honors for just the second time in his career.
In Houston, James Harden and the Rockets quietly found their rhythm. Harden's knack for drawing fouls—something Shaq loved mocking on Shaqtin' a Fool—became a running joke, but it didn't stop Houston from putting together a three-game winning streak.
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, barely missed a beat despite losing Harden. Kevin Durant continued to expand his game, earning praise from local media for his improved ball-handling and playmaking. Russell Westbrook, too, leaned further into his aggressive style, averaging over 20 shot attempts per game for the first time.
Back east, the Raptors pushed themselves back into the playoff conversation. The Knicks, Heat, and Pacers held the top three spots, while Chicago braced for a long season after Derrick Rose announced he would likely miss the entire 2012–13 campaign.
Boston's decline was impossible to ignore, and whether the Celtics could even reach the playoffs had become a real question.
And just as the league seemed to settle into this early-season, chaos—
On the 23rd, the Knicks went on the road and beat the Nuggets, extending their winning streak to ten straight to open the season.
Some Knicks fans had already started whispering about history, daring to dream about chasing the Bulls' legendary 72–10 record. For Charles Barkley, though, it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
Lin Yi had been outstanding from day one. Efficient, composed, relentless. And yet…
Barkley saw no sign—none at all—of Lin Yi breaking that record.
As Lin Yi's birthday approached, the Knicks had just two games left before the big date.
Shaquille O'Neal summed it up perfectly during the broadcast, grinning at the camera whilst tapping his watch:
"Clock's ticking, Charles. Tick-tock. Tick-tock."
. . .
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