'I Got Ripped Hard': Brad Keselowski Looks Back on Embarrassing Display At a Charity Basketball Event

To quote from an old saying, “Those that can, do. While those that can’t, teach.” Meanwhile, NASCAR Cup driver Brad Keselowski puts his own spin on yet another (made-up) saying: “Those that drive race cars are usually lousy basketball players.”

And we have the video to prove it.

Keselowski was asked this week by The Athletic, “What is your most recent memory of getting way too competitive about something?”

Two years before the Michigan native won the NASCAR Cup championship, Keselowski looked like anything but a future champion when he had a basketball in his hands during an intermission event that he took part in during a Charlotte Bobcats (now Charlotte Hornets) home game.

The lanky Keselowski was expected to be a shoo-in for a guy with basketball talent. He turned out more like having doo-doo on his shoes and his hands. You’ve heard the old phrase, “He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn”?

That pretty much summed up Keselowski’s embarrassing night.

“I get there and I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing,” the co-owner of Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing admitted to The Athletic. “I’m wearing a dress shirt and no athletic gear.”

Well, At Least Keselowski Was Honest About His Hoops Acumen

Then comes Bad Brad’s big admission: “I don’t play basketball.”

Boy, could folks in the stands tell that, for sure. Let’s just say that once his racing career is over, Keselowski will not be a good candidate to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

“[Team officials] told me I had to do two free throws, two layups, and dribble down the court,” Keselowski said sheepishly. “I’m like, ‘Whatever.’

“So I just do it and didn’t think anything of it and didn’t care if it was bad.”

Maybe he should have cared, as he deadpanned, “I did not do well.”

How bad was he? Colder than the freezing January evening temperatures outside the arena.

Once the video went viral on social media, it was like an instant replay to Keselowski: “Afterward, I got ripped hard,” he admitted.

Keselowski, who actually grew up a fan of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons—he lived just five miles from their then—Auburn Hills, Michigan arena at the time—when  he was a kid growing up in suburban Detroit, has been haunted by that terrible display of athletic talent ever since.

While Keselowski has tried everything to forget about his horrible hoops display, folks even remember the incident to this day, much to his chagrin.

Keselowski Eventually Learned How To Play The Game—Kinda

But there is kind of a silver lining to this story: Keselowski actually learned how to play basketball.

Well, kinda. Certainly better than that one night in the Charlotte arena.

“Not long after that, Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. started a basketball league in his garage,” Keselowski said. “I joined, and we got super competitive. It got way over the top.

“Dale Jr.’s engine tuner [with Team Hendrick] actually broke his arm playing basketball, and I was like, ‘I need to stop right now, because I don’t know how I would explain this [to then team owner Roger Penske].

“We got so competitive, we were hurting people pretty much every night.”