Witches Shane Battier and Daryl Morey belt out ‘Wicked’ duet at karaoke for charity
Shane Battier’s love of karaoke has long since been established. The retired NBA player-turned-broadcaster has, for quite a few years, hosted a karaoke event called “Battioke” aimed at using his love of song and willingness to get silly to raise money for his Take Charge Foundation, which works to help underprivileged youth in the cities in which he’s played pay for higher education. What you might not know, however, is that Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is also a lover of performance, a fan of musical theater who made his acting debut in the 2013 production of Wallace Shawn’s “Marie and Bruce” mounted by Houston’s Catastrophic Theatre.
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Morey showcased his love of musicals and his support for charitable efforts on Thursday, joining Battier on stage in Houston for Clutch City Battioke 2015 to perform “Defying Gravity,” a duet from “Wicked,” with his former player. More notably, Morey proved his willingness to commit to a bit, appearing in full Galinda the Good regalia to do sonic combat with Battier’s Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
And now, without further ado, grown men dressed as witches singing a song that’s kind of about living without limits but that is also, here, about the relative wisdom of attempting an NBA comeback and the lingering burn of having been traded for Hasheem Thabeet:
If you stick around until the three-minute mark, you’ll get goofs about analytics, DeAndre Jordan, Mark Cuban and Chandler Parsons. I can offer no greater enticement than this.
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It is an admirable level of devotion to the work of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith, and afterward, Battier couldn’t contain how thrilled he was by the participation of the man who helped make him the “No-Stats All-Star” all those years ago:
Yes, of course: the most important thing is raising money for a worthy cause that can help young people get a leg up in life. We’re sure that’s the only reason Morey dressed up like the Good Witch of the South and belted out a seven-minute Broadway classic. For the kids. (Fine work, gentlemen.)
Hat-tip to SB Nation’s Jake Whitacre.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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