You can’t always believe everything you see online.
As soon as people could post videos to the internet, everyday sportsmen were sharing their best plays and trick shots. But as these videos went viral, so too did the desire to fake them. After all, why would you spend all day landing a trick shot when you can spend 20 minutes in the final cut to make it look like you did it on the first try?
While there are still plenty of great plays and trick shots to be found online, there are also a growing number of sports influencers who either fake their content or only show their best. Now, an unexpected character is calling some of these people out—specifically when it comes to basketball.
What Happened During This Pickup Basketball Game?
TikTok user Dan Trepanier (@articlesofstyle) is primarily known as a style influencer. However, he’s also a basketball player, having played Division 1 basketball for Columbia University from 2005 to 2009, per his website.
This became relevant after a trip to the park—one that made him realize that “YouTube basketball players” like Matt Kiatipis, who currently has 2.6 million followers on Instagram, are “not good players.”
“It’s fake, it’s Fugazi, it’s fairy dust,” he says. “And by now you know that I hate fake s—. I hate fake clothes made of plastic. I hate fake food full of chemicals. And most of all, I hate fake people saying fake things.”
According to Trepanier, he visited a park on a Saturday morning. There was a pickup game happening with “a little bit of a crowd” that was being filmed. Excited, he called next.
However, when the game ended, the losing team didn’t leave the court—violating “an international, global rule of pickup basketball.”
“We start to get into an argument,” he says. “Now I’m the old guy screaming at the young kids in the park. So, I gotta take a step back. Let me just watch a game or two.”
What he saw disappointed him.
“I can only describe it as the worst pickup game I’ve ever seen,” he explains. “These young kids coming down, trying to do AND1 mixtape moves that they never practice, throwing up ugly bricks and airballs all day long.”
The Player Gets Revenge
At the end of the game, Trepanier got the players’ names. He later looked them up and discovered their social media pages—and their massive following.
“I’m looking these f—— guys up, and sure enough, their latest videos from that park that I was at. I’m actually in the background of the video,” he shares. “But to my absolute surprise—and at this point, I’m flabbergasted—they’re only showing the makes. They cut out all the bad plays, all the airballs, all the bricks.”
Knowing that this could not stand, Trepanier discovered that Kiatipis and his crew invited people to play pickup basketball with him locally. So, Trepanier decided to stop by—and ended up scoring some pretty impressive points against Kiatipis. While Trepanier shows highlights, he also encourages viewers to watch the whole video, available here.
What Happened Next?
The thing is, this incident happened four years ago. In an email, Trepanier told BroBible the only reason he posted the video now after all these years is that “MK went on national TV here in Canada and said—with a straight face—that he can beat NBA players.”
In the days since posting this video, Trepanier has been posting DMs between himself and Kiatipis.
“Fly out to Italy, La or Paris where I’m playing and we can make your vision come to life,” Kiatipis wrote, seemingly discussing a possible rematch. Trepanier responded by asking when he’ll be back in Canada.
“I won’t do events in Canada until the summer. It seems like you’re excited to make this happen and you’ve already built hype around a nice idea,” Kiatipis responded. “Put your money where your mouth is otherwise you’re going to miss the boat and the hype around your idea will die out bc you put all ur eggs in one basket.”
From here, the conversation seemingly moved to the comments section.
“Let’s up the stakes since u posted a video from 5 years ago. That’s corny. I don’t want $10,000 worth of dog [poop emoji] suits. When I win, you change your company and business name to Articles of MK,” Kiatipis wrote in a comment.
“DEAL! Again; I’m in your hometown with a flexible schedule and free guest passes to LA Fitness – they are open every day 5am-11pm. We do it LIVE. No edits,” Trepanier responded. “When are you back home next? (we’ll be surveying your travels).”
Trepanier Responds
Now, Trepanier told BroBible he hopes the two can resolve this in a 1-on-1 basketball match.
“I challenged him to 1-on-1. If he wins, I will create a bespoke wardrobe package designed just for him at a value of $10,000 (see our website for details on all this),” he wrote. “If I win, I don’t want anything—only for him to make a video that explains to his followers that 1) he knows he could never play in the NBA and 2) it would be impossible for a young person to spend this much time creating YouTube content and also have the time and focus needed to develop the real skills required to play at the top level (this last part is the key message, for me).”
At the time of writing, Trepanier says that Kiatipis has not responded to the above “DEAL!” comment.
“IMO He will not show up because he knows he can’t win,” Trepanier states. “For now, we wait…”
The Hype Is Building
This is an ongoing story, so we don’t have an exact date about if and when this rematch will occur. Needless to say, people are pretty excited about the possibility of a round two.
“Ngl I didn’t expect UNC to hoop like that,” wrote a user.
“So happy to see a video like this. MK is so rude and disrespectful in his clips. Awesome to see you ball up,” offered another.
“I’m not hating to my full potential,” joked a third.
BroBible reached out to Trepanier via Instagram direct message and website contact form and to Kiatipis via email.