2025 ESPY Awards: Schedule, Where To Watch And Key Details About The Annual Event<\/a><\/p>\nCaitlin Clark and Shai Gilgeous\u2011Alexander jokes add to mixed reaction<\/p>\n
Later in the night, Shane Gillis made another big joke about Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever guard and Best WNBA Player winner. He said, \u201cWhen Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she\u2019s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting Black women.\u201d This line made some audience members uncomfortable, and while a few laughed, others seemed shocked as Caitlin Clark was not at the event.He also took a shot at Shai Gilgeous\u2011Alexander, the Oklahoma City Thunder star and Best Male Athlete winner. He joked about SGA and free throws, saying \u201cEverybody sitting around him is in foul trouble.\u201d This got a mixed response, some laughed, some didn\u2019t.Shane Gillis\u2019 opening stunt drew laughter, surprise, and a few uneasy glances. It showed just how mixed the night was, some saw it as funny, others as cringey. The ESPYS honored major stars like Biles, SGA, Clark, Taurasi, and Morgan, but Shane Gillis\u2019 tone kept the evening unpredictable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPYS audience cheers for fake WNBA star Brittany Hicks before Shane Gillis exposes the truth on stage (Image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[15327,15329,15330,15332,15331,6407,14532,15328,99,434],"class_list":["post-16196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2025-espy-awards-highlights","tag-brittany-hicks-wnba-star","tag-caitlin-clark-jokes","tag-dolby-theatre","tag-fake-wnba-player","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-shane-gillis","tag-shane-gillis-monologue","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ESPYS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/122632881.jpg\" "\\"ESPYS")
ESPYS audience cheers for fake WNBA star Brittany Hicks before Shane Gillis exposes the truth on stage (Image Via X) The night of July 16, 2025 saw the ESPY Awards take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with comedian Shane Gillis as the host. He opened with a monologue, in which he pointed out a woman in the audience and said she was a four-time WNBA All-Star, named Brittany Hicks. The crowd all applauded with no questions asked. Moments later, Shane Gillis laughed and admitted he was joking. The woman was actually his friend\u2019s wife, and the name was fake. His prank caught everyone off guard and instantly grabbed attention.<\/p>\n