Chriqui on LeBron, Kobe, and a First Pitch

Emmanuelle Chriqui came on to promote her new film A Love Like This, and the conversation turned into a round-up of her favorite athlete encounters from two decades in Hollywood, plus a first pitch she wants the internet to know about.

The Entourage years gave Chriqui more crossover moments than most actors collect in a career. LeBron James came on the show during her run. She got him to shoot a video for her nephew's bar mitzvah, complete with LeBron saying mazel tov into the camera. Aunt of the year, lifetime achievement level. Tom Brady was on set during the movie but not on her shoot day. Russell Wilson was on set during the movie. She wasn't there for that one either.

Then came the Kobe Bryant story. Chriqui did voice work for Call of Duty, playing the numbers lady across one of the releases. Kobe was also in that game. They met at the session. He gave her his information and told her to come to a Lakers game whenever she wanted. For a stretch of years, she sat courtside at Lakers games when she wanted to. She talked about Kobe with real affection, recognizing the loss.

The Call of Duty work turned into its own sidebar. She gets recognized for the numbers lady voice maybe twice a year, and only by real video game heads. Her impression of her own delivery on the spot was on brand.

The first pitch story is where the segment leans into comedy. Chriqui threw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. She wanted the audience to know she did well. Rich explained what a strike was. She asked whether throwing it past the plate counted. He walked her through the zone. She confirmed she got it past the plate and wasn't YouTube famous for the opposite reason, which Rich noted is the tell. If you weren't good, the internet keeps the evidence. The crew pulled up the date, June 8th, Cubs versus Dodgers, and the pictures showed her celebrating with arms up after the pitch.

Rich compared it to his own first pitch experience, which he said would have fooled a left-handed hitter with the slow stuff but would have hit a right-handed hitter square. The segment pulled up a photo of her actual pitch for TJ's review. TJ called it Nolan Ryan.

The Olympics detour was the other moment. Chriqui watched all of the Olympics this year, locked in on figure skating and skiing. She didn't understand one thing. When the silver medalists accepted their medals, they were also handed a stuffed animal. The show pulled up a photo of a Canadian hockey player holding his silver and his plush toy after losing to Team USA in the gold medal game. The image did a lot of the work. She compared it to getting an Emmy nomination and receiving a stuffed animal as a consolation prize.

The close was clean. A Love Like This is available to rent or buy on all digital platforms. Emmanuelle Chriqui is invited back any time. And somewhere in a file on Dodgers.com there's a picture of her on the mound with her arms up after throwing a strike.