The Miami Heat’s post-game celebrations were pretty eventful last night. They gave drunk locker room interviews. They went clubbing with honorary Heat member Drake. And apparently, team president Pat Riley poured champagne on CNN’s Rachel Nichols’ head mid-interview.
As our friends at Busted Coverage pointed out, it was reminiscent of Joe Namath’s drunken sideline interview with reporter Suzy Kolber, where he stopped answering questions and started telling Suzy how much he wanted to kiss her. Riley was in the middle of answering a question when he decided he’d rather give Nichols a champagne shower, and so he gave her fair warning and did it.
Check it out:
Let’s just appreciate for a second that Riley gives a fairly coherent interview for nearly thirty seconds before impulses get the best of him. But the best part is probably the awkward thing he does after where he puts his hand on her cheek, looks as though he wants the standard end-of-interview kiss goodbye, and then settles for what I’m going to call a half-hug instead.
Nichols took Pat Riley’s creepiness in stride, laughed it off, and made a joke at the end. It was amazing.