WFAN’s Evan Roberts is admittedly “very awkward” and the awkwardness was on display when watching him play basketball.
Regardless of your skill level, if attempting to bring any sort of legitimacy to your hoops game, one thing you probably shouldn’t do is pretend your sneaker is the ball.
Copycatting ESPN’s less than successful H-O-R-S-E event, Roberts challenged WFAN part-time host Sal Licata to a basketball shooting contest. I have no issue with the game, the well-edited video or the poor shooting skills, but using your shoe instead of the ball was an interesting decision.
When a caller brought up the game of H-O-R-S-E during WFAN’s afternoon show on Thursday, Roberts’ co-host Joe Benigno sounded very disappointed in his radio partner for attempting to throw a shoe through the hoop.
The now infamous shoe-shot comes at the three-minute mark of the video.
A confused Benigno first asked what was the point of using your shoe instead of the ball? Roberts called it “strategy,” but a baffled Benigno clearly wasn’t buying it.
“It’s a strategy, shooting your shoe instead of the ball? What the hell kinda strategy is that?” Benigno asked.
Roberts quickly played defense, pointing fingers at his opponent who used a basketball for every one of his shot attempts. “Well one of Sal’s strategies is that he’s shooting behind the basket!”
Benigno seemed unphased by Licata’s behind the basket shot attempt.
“The rule is it has to be the basketball?” Roberts asked Benigno.
“I would think so! What are we playing here, we’re not playing shoe ball!” Benigno answered emphatically.
Now we know, Benigno’s old school sports mentality translates to using a basketball when playing H-O-R-S-E.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
