NC State continued their Cinderella run after winning the ACC Tournament by defeating Texas Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament late Thursday night.
After the game, NC State star DJ Burns was interviewed by sideline reporter Evan Washburn. Burns has become a fan favorite already in March Madness thanks to his personality and play… and the fact that he might not look like the prototypical athlete.
Washburn and CBS tried to have some fun with an NC State postgame tradition of celebrating a victory on the road with ice cream, something that the team has done for several years in honor of the Wolfpack’s big win.
However, something about the bit fell a little flat as Burns smiled when receiving the dessert dish and awkwardly tried to pass off the ice cream to someone in the crowd as quickly as he could when exiting the interview.
CBS gave NC State star DJ Burns ice cream after beating Texas Tech in the first round and he immediately tried to pass it off to someone else. pic.twitter.com/CEyVjYeJHG
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 22, 2024
Here’s the question – did CBS have that ice cream sitting on standby just in case of an NC State victory? If Texas Tech had pulled it out was there a designated person on the CBS crew who was going to down that ice cream as a late night snack?
The intentions were good, but fans couldn’t help but notice the optics of CBS interviewing Burns and immediately throwing junk food in his face given his physique and persona.
CBS just fat shamed DJ Burns. They gave him ice cream. wtf?? pic.twitter.com/a7IEHYqJOL
— DNP Sports (@DNPSportsShow) March 22, 2024
Nah they did DJ Burns dirty giving him Ice Cream after the gameðŸ˜ðŸ˜
— Steven (@StevenFerraro7) March 22, 2024
bruh WHO TF at @CBSSports came up with the idea to awkwardly hand DJ Burns an ice cream sunday on the court after the game???? that cant be real right? did i dream it??
— kyle (@Kj_Allday6) March 22, 2024
DJ Burns is too smart to eat some nasty melted ice cream
The CBS crew looks like a bunch of fools if they really thought he’d eat that on live TV 😂
— Wolfpack Station (@wolfpackstation) March 22, 2024
What exactly are you supposed to do when handed a big bowl of ice cream on national television in front of millions of viewers? Did CBS want him to take a big bite out of it? Hold it up as some kind of trophy? Do some slapstick comedy and put it in Washburn’s face? We’ll never know because the end result was the bit awkwardly fizzing out as DJ Burns tried to pass that ice cream off as quickly as he could and left the scene immediately.
