Shane Gillis Takes Shot at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in ESPYs Monologue

ESPN held its annual ESPY awards, a made-for-TV event that is fabricated by the World Wide Leader in Sports to fill the worst week of the sports calendar. With the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby behind us, there are a few dark days in sports ahead of meaningless regular season baseball resuming and the wait for football.

These awards matter not, a fan-voted honor that doesn't show up on anyone's trading card, Hall of Fame resume, or sports reference page. Even ESPN themselves don't promote ESPY wins when discussing a player's list of achievements –– They went as far as to spoil one of their own awards yesterday, announcing Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the best player in the NBA honor four hours before the award show.

Already having one honor in the bag, eventually grabbing another ESPY for Best Male Athlete of the Year at Wednesday night's event, Gilgeous-Alexander was in attendance and the butt of a joke from comedian Shane Gillis, who was tabbed as the host of this year's event.

Gillis is receiving mixed reviews at best for his head-scratching performance at the made-up award show, pushing the envelope not only too far at times, but often just for the sake of it, with a lack of execution.

However, one joke that Gillis nailed saw Gilgeous-Alexander on the wrong end of it, as the Thunder superstar was flanked by teammates Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Hartenstein.

"SGA is here, give it up for SGA. And now, everybody sitting around him is in foul trouble," Gillis joked during his opening monologue on Wednesday night.

The joke received sparing laughs –– which was the case all night as Gillis dealt with an uneasy crowd –– but even Gilgeous-Alexander couldn't help but crack a smile.

This was the most tame joke the comedian spat out all night, but one that hit the mark. Sometimes, you don't need to push the envelope or go too far. A harmless gag about a popular narrative is all that is required to get a few cheap laughs in a hosting role rather than Gillis' typical stand-up routine.

While this scribe will not tell you how to feel about Gillis' overall act on Wednesday, as far as the joke at the Thunder's expense, not only was it in bounds but completely normal for the setting –– the same can't be said for the rest of the night.

No one truly believes Gilgeous-Alexander is a "free throw merchant" aside from 14-year-olds on Twitter who don't even watch basketball in any medium other than social media clips. It doesn't detract from a great season for the Thunder or its star in any way.

The same Thunder fans outraged by this joke (see replies), praised Payton Manning's hosting job at the ESPYs when the Hall of Fame quarterback took a shot at Kevin Durant back in 2017.

"Our gymnastics team was so dominant that Kevin Durant told me he wants to play for them next year," Manning jabbed at Durant as the ESPYs host.

While you can evaluate Gillis' overall performance any way you want, this Gilgeous-Alexander barb was commonplace.