Jimmy Kimmel responds to Ted Cruz's challenge to game of one-on-one basketball
After late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made fun of Texas Sen. Cruz’s appearance at Game 7 of the Rockets-Warriors series in Houston on Sunday, Cruz responded by challenging him to a game of one-on-one basketball.
Minutes before tipoff…. @HoustonRockets #ClutchCity GO ROCKETS!!!! pic.twitter.com/0ri7pCfhJV
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 29, 2018
The host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” said on his show Tuesday that Cruz looked like a “blobfish” in the photo Cruz tweeted from courtside.
“Can you be embarrassed by a picture of someone else’s dad? Because I am,” Kimmel said, according to The Hill. “When Ted arrived at the Toyota Center, some of the fans mistakenly thought it was Grandpa Munster Bobblehead Night. I mean, look at him. He looks, and I’m not joking here, he looks like a blobfish.”
Cruz heard about the jab and responded via Twitter with a challenge.
“All right, Big Guy…you talk a good game. You besmirched my support for the @HoustonRockets. So let’s settle this man-to-man: one-on-one, hoops (or ‘ring-ball,’ if you prefer). The loser gives $5k to the (non-political) charity of the winner’s choice,” Cruz tweeted on Wednesday.
.@jimmykimmel All right, Big Guy…you talk a good game. You besmirched my support for the @HoustonRockets 🤨 So let’s settle this man-to-man: one-on-one, hoops (or “ring-ball,” if you prefer). The loser gives $5k to the (non-political) charity of the winner’s choice. https://t.co/BWvAP5VOtM
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 31, 2018
The reference to “ring ball” is a joke about himself as Cruz, at a campaign stop in Indiana during his 2016 presidential campaign, referred to a basketball hoop as a basketball “ring” while stumping at the Hoosier Gym Community Center in Knightstown.
Kimmel tweeted back that he was in, with one condition.
I like this idea. I’ll accept on one condition – we both wear VERY short shorts. https://t.co/rKxgHuPCjW
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 31, 2018
Cruz shot back: “As Borat demonstrated conclusively, NOBODY wants to see that. And ABC would probably be fined by the FCC! How ‘bout this: you dress yourself, I’ll do the same. Play to 10 (by ones), win by 2.”
Then he wrote, “you can wear a kilt if you like,” accompanied by a Simpsons reference.
.@JimmyKimmelLive Knock yourself out. Heck, you can wear a kilt if you like. pic.twitter.com/KbWvbpEVuL
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 31, 2018
Eventually, Cruz tweeted, “Never mind the dress code. We can play to 10, or 21, or 50, your choice. @adamcarolla can provide color commentary.”
.@jimmykimmel Never mind the dress code. We can play to 10, or 21, or 50, your choice. @adamcarolla can provide color commentary…. https://t.co/IqQIKdzlk5
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 31, 2018
Ultimately, Kimmel accepted the challenge.
“If he wants to do it, I feel like I have to do it, right?” Kimmel said on his show. “Besides, who needs to watch LeBron and Kevin Durant again when we can instead focus on two out of shape white men in their 50s with little to no athletic ability instead? So yes, Ted Cruz, I do accept your challenge. I will play you one-on-one.”
Cruz reportedly organizes basketball games among senators, so he may not be that bad.
“Cruz is said to be a surprisingly good jump-shooter with miserable form,” Politico‘s Tim Alberta wrote in January.
When Deadspin asked for proof of Cruz playing basketball, Cruz jokingly tweeted a picture of Duke’s Grayson Allen shooting.
what do I win? pic.twitter.com/9XuRmmIkJS
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 25, 2017
As for the game with Kimmel, it remains to be seen when it will actually be played.
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