--- title: Game 1: Jimmy Kimmel Accepts Ted Cruz Basketball Challenge description: “You really wanna play basketball against a talk-show host?” Jimmy Kimmel asked Ted Cruz when he accepted Ted Cruz's challenge. canonical: https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-01T14:15:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:11.708Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel Accepted Ted Cruz's Basketball Challenge og:description: “You really wanna play basketball against a talk-show host?” Kimmel asked og:url: https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b4a4727b037c322/6989321aab6d776cdd6b2db4/jimmykimmelcruz.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: JimmyKimmelCruz og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel Accepted Ted Cruz's Basketball Challenge twitter:description: “You really wanna play basketball against a talk-show host?” Kimmel asked twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b4a4727b037c322/6989321aab6d776cdd6b2db4/jimmykimmelcruz.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Kimmel to Ted Cruz: One-on-One Basketball Challenge Accepted by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 1, 2018 2:15 PM UTC  The Jimmy Kimmel and Ted Cruz feud continues. The Jimmy Kimmel and Ted Cruz feud continues. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 1, 2018 2:15 PM UTC Jimmy Kimmel is ready to take on [Texas](http://time.com/5298158/national-spelling-bee-champion-karthik-nemmani/) Senator Ted Cruz, not on the campaign trail, or in a war of words this time, but where it counts: on the basketball court. “You may remember Ted \[Cruz\] as the guy who once called the hoop a ‘basketball ring’ on the campaign trail,” Kimmel said on Thursday night’s episode of _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_, mocking the senator [once again](http://time.com/4939334/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-porn-tweet/). The latest battle between the two started on Tuesday night, when [Kimmel](http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217539/jimmy-kimmel/) joked that Cruz looked “like a blobfish” in a photo he tweeted of himself courtside at Game 7 between the Golden State Warriors and Cruz’s team, the Houston Rockets. Cruz felt “besmirched” by the comment and decided to go medieval on Kimmel, and challenge him to a duel on the basketball court for charity: > [](https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1002011542177579008) While [Kimmel](http://time.com/5200561/jimmy-kimmel-lie-witness-news-street-interviews/) couldn’t help but mock Cruz’s word choice (“Besmirched! He really knows his way around a diss track, this Ted,” he cracked), he was up for the challenge, saying: “I immediately went online and googled ‘how to guard a blobfish.’” Kimmel was confused by the request, though: “You really wanna play basketball against a talk-show host? You already lost an election to a reality show host. Isn’t that enough?” “But if he wants to do it, I feel like I have to do it, right?” added Kimmel. “So yes, Ted Cruz, I do accept your challenge. I _will_ play you one-on-one.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel to Ted Cruz: One-on-One Basketball Challenge Accepted","datePublished":"2018-06-01T14:15:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:11.708Z","description":"“You really wanna play basketball against a talk-show host?” Kimmel asked","url":"https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Jimmy Kimmel","ted cruz","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b4a4727b037c322/6989321aab6d776cdd6b2db4/jimmykimmelcruz.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b4a4727b037c322/6989321aab6d776cdd6b2db4/jimmykimmelcruz.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JimmyKimmelCruz","caption":"Jimmy Kimmel and Ted Cuz feud","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel to Ted Cruz: One-on-One Basketball Challenge Accepted"}}]}] ```