Ted Cruz trolls Deadspin with hoops photo

Yet that’s what happened Tuesday night as Cruz posted a photo on his official Twitter account and asked Deadspin, formerly of the Gawker network, “[W]hat do I win?”

The photo was actually two jokes in one, an old joke and a new, more trollish one.

What looks very much like a young Ted Cruz in a Duke basketball jersey turns out to be the actual undoctored photo of Duke point guard Grayson Allen.

Their physical similarities were so striking that Cruz last year satirically denied that they are in fact the same person to a CNN reporter.

At the time, Cruz pointed out how well Allen can jump to dunk the basketball. In contrast, the senator said, “The only way I see the rim is standing on a ladder.”

The site had asked for the photos because of reports that Cruz was trying to mend relationships with fellow Republican senators in part by inviting them to his weekly basketball game in the Russell Building gym.

And Deadspin dearly wants evidence of those games.

“Surely some of you reading this must work on the Hill, or know someone who is secretly sleeping in the men’s locker room in the Russell Building on the Hill,” writer Ashley Feinberg wrote.

“Either way if you happen to snap a few photographs – or better yet, a video – of Ted Cruz in his raw, unbridled, soup-fueled athletic form, please for the love of god send them to [us].

“It’s going to be a long four years. We need this.”

Deadspin was not amused by the response, telling the senator to “Go eat shit.”

Cruz then replied with an “Anchorman” meme reading: “Boy, that escalated quickly.”