Jeff Van Gundy defends Khloe Kardashian in Game 4 rant (Video)

Feb 5, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy watches the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs at the American Airlines Center. The Spurs defeat the Mavericks 116-90. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 5, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy watches the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs at the American Airlines Center. The Spurs defeat the Mavericks 116-90. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s only the first quarter of Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals, but ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy has already gone on a rant to defend Khloe Kardashian of all things.

This could be the last night of meaningful NBA basketball for a while, as the Golden State Warriors hold a 3-0 series lead heading into Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals. We didn’t even make it halfway through the first quarter before ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy went on one of his trademark rants.

Van Gundy doesn’t care when he goes off on things like players resting on national television games or what not. That his favorite ranting topic, but tonight he picked a new one: defending Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson’s girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.

Thompson had played horrendously in the first three games of the NBA Finals and people all over the internet were blaming Kardashian for his bad play. That’s clearly reaching a tad, but Lamar Odom and James Harden didn’t exactly thrive after their breakups with Kardashian.

Van Gundy took the moral high ground on why we shouldn’t be blaming Thompson’s miserable finals on his girlfriend. He does have a point, but we all kind of knew that Kardashian isn’t responsible for Thompson struggling on the defensive glass.

Thompson had been key in the Cavaliers’ two previous runs to the NBA Finals. In 2015, he was one of the better players on an injured Cavaliers team. Thompson was a big piece down low that helped bring Cleveland its first title since 1964 last June.

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Because E!’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians is a massive television hit, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people would label one of the sisters a scapegoat for Thompson’s on-court struggles. However, it was kind of funny that it took Van Gundy roughly five minutes to go on a rant in this game and Kardashian set him off.