Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) faced off in a game of one-on-one, and Cruz beat Kimmel 11-9. The loser agreed to donate $5,000 to the winner’s charity of choice, though both charities—Cruz’s choice Generation One and Kimmel’s choice Texas Children’s Hospital—were ultimately included.
It all started when Kimmel joked that “the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the NBA’s Western Conference finals because the Rockets had a bad-luck charm: Ted Cruz. Kimmel mocked his looks, suggesting fans thought it was “Grandpa Munster Bobblehead Night.” Then he said “he looks like a blobfish” — a species ranked number one on the Ugliest Animals list.”
Cruz was up to having some fun with that, so he responded via Twitter:
Kimmel and Cruz went back and forth in a hilarious exchange about dress codes before agreeing to the challenge set by Cruz. Thankfully, neither contender opted to wear short shorts, a crop top, or a kilt.
Kimmel and Cruz engaged in some pre-game trash talk:
Leading up to the game, Kimmel and Cruz shared via Twitter.
Ultimately, though, Cruz was victorious.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
It was the Thunderdome from “Mad Max” or the coliseum from “Spartacus,” if either Max or Sparty were two, middle-aged American men playing a slow-motion car-crash of half-court basketball for charity and political one upsmanship.Conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz triumphed over liberal ABC late-night host/comedian Jimmy Kimmel with a hard-won 11-9 victory in the first Blobfish Basketball Classic at Texas Southern University’s Health and Physical Education Arena Saturday.The event, which turned out to be a Coachella festival of air balls, missed shots and footwork that would make a sloth look like Usain Bolt, was sparked by Twitter trash-talk that started after Cruz posted a picture of himself supporting the Houston Rockets over the Golden State Warriors during Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. Kimmel joked that Cruz resembled a blobfish, a not particularly attractive creature that dwells at the bottom of the ocean.
Both men were gracious in their respective victory and defeat.
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