The NBA Finals tipped off Thursday night (June 1), but what happened prior to the game was way more entertaining.

Prior to tipoff, Jimmy Kimmel helped open the highly-anticipated series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors with a special NBA edition of his popular "Mean Tweets" segment, in which basketball greats past and present, as well as some other league personalities, read some pretty unflattering comments about themselves.

Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson and Paul George were just some of the big names who sat down to share the cruel remarks. All did a good job of rolling with the punches. Well, almost all -- Hall of Famer Karl Malone was having none of it.

No one from the Cavaliers or the Warriors appeared in the bit. They were probably too focused on the game at hand and we can imagine after the game there were plenty of other mean tweets directed at the Cavs, who lost 113-91.

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