John Kasich slammed the 76ers before shooting hoops on the campaign trail

Ohio Gov. John Kasich
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Presidential hopeful John Kasich isn't polling well in the crowded Republican field, with his numbers likely barely clearing the threshold for the next debate. To add insult to injury, any chance the Ohio governor had at a career in basketball is also on the rocks.

After holding a town hall at an athletic club in New Hampshire on Friday, Kasich challenged his spokesman, Chris Schrimpf, to a good ol' fashioned game of H-O-R-S-E. Kasich missed some shots at first. CBS News reports he ultimately won, but not without speculating the win was staged by Schrimpf.

See more

Perhaps Kasich was hoping for a convincing performance to follow his shots (pun intended) at the Philadelphia 76ers, who had a rough 2014 season.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The reason why some of them make a lot of money is because they have skills," he told an earlier crowd about the importance of job skills. "Not too many Sixers have had that many skills lately, but they do."

The Sixers responded in a now-deleted tweet poking fun at Kasich's low poll numbers, ABC News reports: "At least we win more than 2% of the time."

Kasich ultimately made good with the squad, playfully tweeting a basket of his and calling them a "great young team."

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.