@pete clemenza already said it but Shaq is the one who ruined the discourse on TNT.
Does any league besides the NFL have rivalries that matter anymore? With player movement, the modern schedule and divisions not really meaning anything now it's tough to have longstanding rivalries.
In the NFL, teams play their division opponents twice each year, two other divisions and then against opponents that finished at the same level as them the year before (so division winners play each other every year). That's a natural way to give more importance to division rivals and then teams that are good every year. That's why Buffalo and KC play every year (Allen and Mahomes). Those games matter too because of the lack of overall games and not quite as many playoff spots as the NBA.
The 82 game schedule of the NBA basically kills meaningful rivalries until the playoffs. It's exciting when the top teams/players face-off but the losing team isn't really risking any playoff seeding as a result. They'd have to really alter the schedule to build those rivalries again.
Right now, it's four games against division opponents, two against every team in the other conference and a mix of three/four games against other teams in your conference outside the division.
What if they tilted it towards division/conference heavily? Six games against each team in your division, four against the other teams in the conference and only one game against teams in the other conference.