--- title: Jimmy Kimmel Got Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo description: “I cannot imagine any scenario in which I lose this game to that greasy blobfish,” says Kimmel canonical: https://time.com/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-05T14:30:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:13.319Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel Has Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo og:description: Kimmel is confident he will win their one-on-one basketball game og:url: https://time.com/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel Has Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo twitter:description: Kimmel is confident he will win their one-on-one basketball game twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Jimmy Kimmel Got His Hands on Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 5, 2018 2:30 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 5, 2018 2:30 PM UTC Jimmy Kimmel has found a little ammunition to use as he warms up for [his basketball game](http://time.com/5298457/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball/) against [Texas](http://time.com/5298158/national-spelling-bee-champion-karthik-nemmani/) Senator Ted Cruz—a yearbook photo. The throwdown between the late night host and the sitting U.S. senator started in May, 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 tweeted that he felt “besmirched” by the comment and decided to challenge Kimmel to a one-on-one basketball competition with the loser making a donation to a charity of the winner’s choice. “Once the NBA season is over, our lonely nation turns its eyes to a one-on-one basketball game between me and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,” Kimmel said on Monday night’s episode of _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_. With the competition tentatively slated for Father’s Day weekend, which is quickly approaching, Kimmel has started to practice not only his hook shot, but in the long-standing basketball tradition, he has also been honing his trash talking. Not only did he revisit his blobfish comparison, he then shared Cruz’s high school yearbook photo with the world. Kimmel knows he needs to practice his one-on-one skills, because Cruz’s yearbook reveals that he played varsity basketball in high school. Kimmel, on the other hand, played clarinet. Still, Kimmel is confident: “I can picture no scenario in which I lose this game to that greasy blobfish.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Got His Hands on Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo","datePublished":"2018-06-05T14:30:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:13.319Z","description":"“I can picture no scenario in which I lose to that greasy blobfish,” says Kimmel","url":"https://time.com/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Jimmy Kimmel","ted cruz","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/5301289/jimmy-kimmel-ted-cruz-basketball-2/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Got His Hands on Basketball Rival Ted Cruz’s Yearbook Photo"}}]}] ```