2022 Woke All-Star Challenge: The Play-In Round

Joe Kinsey and Bobby Burack co-authored this article.

Welcome to the 2nd annual Woke All-Star Challenge where we honor those sports media wokes who have gone above and beyond for the cause. What we learned in 2021 is that limiting the Challenge to 16 wokes left out too many competitors, so the committee created a play-in challenge where four lucky wokes get a shot at making the main field of 16.

Let's get to the action!

Look at him, it's sad:

https://twitter.com/Aqua174/status/1503111653319192589

Get the vaccine, you dope! People are dying” 

Wilbon is also leading the charge against Phil Mickelson because he considered playing golf for Saudi Arabia. That's fine. But why does Wilbon proudly support the players and his friends who defended the Chinese Communist Party? Weird

Wilbon got old, and very woke. 

Adrian Wojnarowski:

Woj is the epitome of a woke. Beyond sending Senator Josh Hawley a "fuck you" email after Hawley questioned the NBA's silence on its business partners in Chine committing genocide, Woj is a massive hypocrite, a key trait found in the wokes.

Woj called Rachel Nichols a "bad teammate" for not joyfully accepting that ESPN cut her out of the NBA Finals for the great sin of being white. Interestingly, Woj is the second worst teammate at ESPN, behind only Stephen A. Smith.

During the trade deadline, Woj went on-air to belittle co-reporter Brian Windhorst because  Windhorst said that the Nets were likely trading Ben Simmons for James Harden “There is no negotiation going on between Philadelphia and Brooklyn,” Woj said while debunking his teammate's report.

Well, less than 24 hours later, the Nets did trade Simmons, and for Harden. Woj never apologized to Windy. Rather, he took credit for the report.

And who could forget Woj's Big Lie? In a "news" report on the NBA, Woj falsely claimed that Jacob Blake was unarmed when the police shot him, almost a year after Blake had admitted that he was armed with a knife.

What a woke, lying hypocrite.

Betting line as set by @beatinthebookie:

Wilbon -170

Woj +130

Bomani Jones vs. The Athletic Staff in the #MeToo Region

Bomani Jones' ratings weren't good enough for him to secure a spot in the tournament but his woke racism this year earned him a place in the play-in tournament.

After failing on both ESPN Radio and television, Jones now hosts a show on HBO show, called Race Theory. And, somehow, it's his biggest failure yet.

The first episode lost 80% of its lead-in's viewership and the second episode failed to even chart, losing to a 2 am airing of “PAID PROGRAMMING.”

Bomani Jones spent the past year how he has spent all of his years: calling white people racist.  Jones has even recently said that white people are the problem in the NFL, in his life and in America.

“I just don’t know why people try to make this far more complex than it is,” Jones said. “What’s the problem? White people.”

No wonder no one watches this guy -- he's woke, racist and hateful.

The Athletic Staff:

OutKick decided, instead of including random woke Athletic staffers in the bracket, we'd just include the entire staff of wokes led by senior woke Nicole Auerbach who competed in the 2021 bracket. It's a tough play-in matchup against rookie woke (it's not his first rodeo, but we wouldn't let him into the 2021 bracket) Bomani.

This play-in game will be a test to see if Auerbach and the crew was woke enough over Aaron Rodgers' COVID stance or if Bomani is just too much to overcome.

Betting line as set by @beatinthebookie:

Bomani -105

Athletic Staff -105

Peter King vs. Jalen Rose in the Toxic Region:

This is a battle of two No. 4 seeds in the 2021 bracket where both lost to formidable foes. Peter was defeated by Pat Forde while Jalen saw his woke run end via a total beatdown at the hands of Keith Olbermann.

Now, one of these two will get their first woke victory. That's what the play-in is all about. Like March Madness and 16-seeds that get to brag they have a tourney victory, one of these wokes will be updating his Wiki page to reflect a victory.

Let's not forget how Jalen got here. Remember when he said Jacob Blake was dead?

As for Peter, his big moment of woke came when he was mad at how many people showed up to a Braves game while implying they were all going to die due to COVID.

Betting line as set by @beatinthebookie:

Peter King +160

Jalen Rose -200

Stan Van Gundy vs. Stan Verrett in the Nonbinary Region:

Stan V is one of the creepier wokes.

At 55-years-old, with no wife or kids, Verrett has a lot of time on his hands. So much so, he obsessively tweets at OutKick's Bobby Burack late into the night. Spoiler: Bobby never responds.

It appears Stan has never recovered from the dunking Clay put on him a few years back:

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1199180382467477504

Look at Verrett as Keith Olbermann but without the decades of fame and success. Pray for Stan. He needs it.

Stan Van Gundy makes his rookie woke debut off a year that saw him enter the voting rights bill fray and just about any other lib lib cause he could form an opinion on. He's railed on subjects like Ron DeSantis, arguing over COVID shots, and SVG even got involved in the Lia Thomas content.

Betting line as set by @beatinthebookie:

SVG -140

Verrett +110