Jimmy Kimmel has faced off against his fair share of politicians via his talk show monologues; now, he’ll be engaging in a showdown against former Republican party leader candidate Ted Cruz — not on stage at the El Capitan Theater but on a basketball court.
“You may remember Ted as the guy who once called the hoop a ‘basketball ring’ on the campaign trail,” Kimmel said of the Texas senator during Thursday’s edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after Cruz issued a mano-a-mano hoops challenge to the late-night host.
RELATED: Watch Kobe Bryant And Other NBA Players Read ‘Mean Tweets’ on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
It all started on Tuesday night’s show, when Kimmel goofed on Cruz for looking “like a blobfish” in a courtside selfie he tweeted right before Game 7 of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors took on Cruz’s team, the Houston Rockets.
Following Kimmel’s barbs, Cruz returned to Twitter to tell the host he felt “besmirched” by the joke, and challenged him to a one-on-one basketball game for charity.
Addressing Cruz’s challenge, Kimmel mocked the senator’s choice of words. “Besmirched! He really knows his way around a diss track, this Ted,” joked Kimmel, adding that as soon as he read Cruz’s tweet he “immediately went online and Googled ‘how to guard a blobfish.’”
Kimmel then questioned whether Cruz realized what he was getting himself into. “You really wanna play basketball against a talk show host?” quipped Kimmel. “You already lost an election to a reality show host. Isn’t that enough?”
However, Kimmel is not one to back down from a challenge. “If he wants to do it, I feel like I have to do it, right?” he added. “So yes, Ted Cruz, I do accept your challenge. I will play you one-on-one.”
It didn’t take long for Cruz to respond.
No word yet on when this sure-to-be-epic matchup will occur, but when it does you can bet it will air on an episode of “JKL!”.
