Shaquille O'Neal roasted by a dragon in House of the Dragon/Inside the NBA crossover

The second season of House of the Dragon premieres in just a handful of weeks, and HBO is getting the word out anyway it can. Oh, sure, we got a new trailer earlier this week, but what about a dragon stopping by the set of a sports commentary show to burn an NBA legend alive?

That's what happened on the long-running show NBA on TNT, where Shaquille O'Neal participated in a little sketch where he presented a gift of barbecue chicken to "a member of the cast." Of course that ended up being a dragon, and of course it burnt Shaq to a crisp. Watch below:

"Shaqarys!" This stuff writes itself. I also liked Shaq's fellow commentator quipped that this is his best acting work since 1996 Kazaam. And then Shaq writhes around pretending to be suffering from burns. Maybe I haven't watched enough sports commentary.

HBO has been doing a lot of marketing for House of the Dragon, which bodes well for their confidence in the series. Sometimes it feels like a big Netflix series will drop with barely any press beforehand. I like that HBO is trying to get the word out, holding remix contests, staging chess-themed photoshoots, burning NBA players and the rest. Shaq did participate in the upfront presentation for Warner Bros. Discovery this week, so maybe WBD wanted to leverage that connection to promote House of the Dragon.

The next big press event will probably be the House of the Dragon season 2 red carpet premiere in New York City, which is going down on June 3 in New York City. After that, the show itself will premiere on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.