He’s got to be joking with this outfit.
Festus Ezeli, a backup center for the 2015 champion Warriors and their 73-win campaign the following season, is now being looked at as a bit of a fashionista with his new job as an NBC Sports Bay Area NBA analyst.
During Tuesday’s postgame show after the Warriors defeated the Nets 120-107, Ezeli attempted his best Craig Sager impression with a fashion statement: a white shirt with a yellow tie that hung over a yellow hoodie, completed with a a black suit jacket.
“Is that a tie outside a hoodie?” show host Bonta Hill began pointing out with a laugh from him and former St. John’s star Chris Mullin.
Mullin then leaned over to tug at Ezeli’s tie to see if it was real, which it was.
Ezeli, while taking the jokes, didn’t love that Mullin grabbed at his tie, saying, “What’s wrong with you, man?” as he pulled back his tie.
As Ezeli threw his hands up playfully while they had a laugh at his expense, Hill pointed out that it’s social media that’s having a field day, not them.
“Festus. Cmon now, dog,” one X user, @DOM_IZZO, posted with pictures of Ezeli’s outfit, which included his black pants that had a yellow stripe going down the side. The post has over 22,000 likes at the time of this writing.
“This is exactly what I expect Festus Ezeli to wear day to day,” another jokester, @rlycuteguy posted on X.
Ezeli is best known for his three years in the NBA, all with the Warriors, including a Game 7 start in the 2016 NBA Finals, when LeBron James and the Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit to win it all.
That was his final NBA game, as knee issues forced him to end his career early after he signed with the Trail Blazers that offseason.
He never logged another NBA minute, but has rebounded with a career in sports media.