Last Sunday night in Los Angeles, as the Lakers were closing out their regular season against the Jazz, the broadcast cameras landed on two guys courtside who looked like they didn’t belong — and somehow belonged more than anyone else in the building.
Their names are Brandon Taylor and Tom Biddle, and they are not celebrities. Not yet. They’re just two content creators from Indianapolis who showed up courtside to the game dressed as LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
Tom, better known online as “Popcorn with Tom,” does look uncannily like Doncic. The height, the facial hair, the haircut, if you see him from a distance you might do a double-take.
Brandon, who goes by the online name of “Young Mantis,”… well, let’s just say his LeBron impression relies a lot more on inner confidence than actual accuracy.
They went viral anyway.
In addition to the broadcast cameras, the Lakers’ in-house camera crew spotlighted them. They included them in their “Fan of the Game” contest. They made it down to the final two. But they lost to a young Lakers fan instead.
“It stuck with me that we didn’t win the Fan of the Game,” Tom told The California Post in an exclusive interview Saturday. “So we decided to upgrade our seats to get more of an advantage tonight.”
Upgraded is one way to put it. The pair is sitting next to the Rockets’ bench for Game 1 of the NBA playoff series and even got up close and personal with LeBron and his son, Bronny, during pregame warmups.
The courtside seats in the playoffs cost north of $100,000, and if you believe them, they did it not for status or clout but for revenge.
“The Lakers are going to win tonight, but more importantly we’re going to win the game,” Brandon said. “We don’t know how much time LeBron has left. We have to witness greatness.”
James, at 41 years old, is definitely hoping to turn back the clock against the Rockets on Saturday. Without Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), the undermanned Lakers are heavy underdogs against the younger, athletic and defensive-minded Rockets.
So Brandon and Tom decided to lean into it. They stayed in Los Angeles, posted their viral clips and showed back up to Game 1 of the NBA playoff series.
“I’m hoping to see my boy and get a picture,” said Tom of wanting to meet the real Luka Doncic, who returned to Los Angeles after two weeks in Europe on Friday night and was seated on the Lakers’ bench for Game 1.
Here’s hoping they win “Fan of the Game” this time.
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