While many around the league were either expressing sheer amazement for a Russell Westbrook dunk in Oklahoma City’s 117-89 loss to San Antonio. Others were expressing surprise over the obscene amount of money—$2 billion—that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has agreed to pay in order to become the new Los Angeles Clippers owner.
While all of these things are both entertaining and informative, in the midst of it all was the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a yearly contest to determine the best young speller in America.
This year’s outing provided more than a few entertaining moments with which to garner NBA athletes attention, though one didn’t even know that the Bee was even a thing.
Theres a spelling bee on ESPN?!? #imnerdybutnotthatnerdy
— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) May 30, 2014
One comical moment involved contestant Jacob Williamson, 15, who was excitedly overconfident about a word he would spell incorrectly.
Kabaragoya — Andre Iguodala (@andre) May 30, 2014
His excitement and reaction made him an internet legend, producing numerous hip hop remixes.
Another funny moment in the Bee, Sriram Hathwar, one of the contestants, was asked to spell “Feijoada.”
DEFINITION: a thick stew that is made of black beans and preferably fatty meat (as sausage) with vegetables and that is popular in Brazil and some other South American countries.”
As normal protocol, he asked for the word to be used in a sentence. The judge proceeded to provide an example that made use of a lyric from “Milkshake”, a popular song by two-time Grammy Award winning singer Kelis.
Turned it to the Spelling Bee at the right time, did the judge really just quote a line from Kelis song Milkshake?
— Lavoy Allen (@chefVOYardee) May 30, 2014
“@TheRealBenChew: Here’s the video @chefVOYardee RT @RKalland Spelling Bee out here quoting Kelis. https://t.co/dEM18hOvqk”
— Lavoy Allen (@chefVOYardee) May 30, 2014
#spellingbee is crazy — Kemba walker (@KembaWalker) May 30, 2014
Sriram, 14, was one of two finalists, along with Ansun Sujoe, 13. The two had an epic showdown that began with two incorrect spellings. The two recovered from those misspellings to correctly work their way through all of the remaining championship words save for the two kept in reserve in case they both encountered errors.
With the bank of championship words depleted, the two were declared co-champions—the first in the past 52 years. The rare co-victory merited a congratulatory response from the President, Barack Obama.
Congrats to Ansun and Sriram, the incredible co-champs of the #ScrippsNationalSpellingBee. You make us all proud! -bo
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2014
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Michael Brumagin writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com. Follow @mbrumagin