Kofi Kingston Talks Embarrassing Basketball Story Involving The Miz

Recently on The New Day: Feel The Power, WWE Superstars Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods welcomed a longtime friend of Kingston's to the podcast, financial advisor Anthony Shropshire. Among many other things, Kingston and Woods talked about playing basketball against Cesaro and Bo Dallas before recalling an embarrassing pickup game between Kingston and The Miz.

According to Woods, Cesaro, who Big E has called "the most physically impressive" WWE Superstar, destroyed Woods and Kingston in a game of pickup basketball.

"So, we play basketball," Woods explained. "We were at a gym, an LA Fitness or something, and they had a basketball court. And we had been running through Cesaro being good at everything and for whatever reason – I don't know what sparked this idea of playing basketball – I think maybe we were going to play and then they came in, but we were like, 'oh, we'll play, like, a 2-on-2 [game]. Oh, we came? Oh no! And we what did we play? First [tandem] to 11? And I don't think we scored once. Bo with his big, ham hock hands just pushing us out of the way, and Cesaro making breakaways, passing to Bo, Bo shooting 3s. We literally had no chance. We were the worst basketball team ever."

Kingston claimed that Cesaro merely took the friendly game of basketball too seriously.  

"Cesaro just plays so hard, man," Kingston recalled. "And it's supposed to be a recreational game or pickup basketball and he's playing like it's the NBA Finals, boxing people out, man. Do you know what I mean? He played too hard, man."

Also during the podcast, Kingston relived yet another embarrassing basketball misadventure. Apparently, the high flyer was playing The Miz at a summer camp in Lafayette, Louisiana and neither WWE Superstar could score for several minutes and kids became "dejected".  

"I had just done deadlifts and legs on the same day and then Miz comes in and he wants to play some basketball. 'Oh, we've got a basketball court over here!' 'Alright, let's play!' And it was in the middle of the summer, so we go to the court and there's a summer camp going on and how cool is it that these kids get to see, 'oh, WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston and The Miz playing basketball here. Let's gather around!' I'm talking about 100 kids, bro, and they're over surrounding us in the game. I think it was just to 7 or 11."

Kingston added, "as the game started to progress, if you want to call it progress, so we get to going back and forth and whatever and neither of us can hit a shot. It's probably 10 minutes in. It's supposed to be a game probably to 7. It's 0-0 and you can see the kids who were excited to see their favorite WWE Superstars getting dejected one at a time."

Woods highlighted the fact that the summer campers actually started to walk away from the ongoing pickup game.

"The kids are at a summer camp," Woods said. "They literally have nothing else to do, but watch this game. And they walked away because it was so bad."

On the subject of Kingston's trash talking, Woods indicated that he was unaware of it till they played video games more seriously on the YouTube series Up Up Down Down.

"From being around him normally, I didn't know about the trash talking, the level, the extent that he goes into when he's actually in the zone of talking trash. I didn't realize that till Up Up Down Down and, like, the first time that we played video games together, like, for real competitively." Woods stated, "and to me, that unlocked a different Kofi that I didn't know existed."

'Shrop' shared that Kingston has always been an expert trash talker.  

"Yeah, yeah, so he has always had a unique ability to get into your head because he knows what to say and how to demoralize you from the inside and out. And the worst part about it is that he's so articulate with the words that you can't even keep a straight face. You're like, 'you got me! I'm already finished.'" Shropshire said, "I'm trying to play Madden; I'm trying to play Street Fighter; and, the trash that is coming out of his mouth is poetic! But it gets you so mad, right?"

Check out the podcast here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit The New Day: Feel The Power with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.