The New Orleans Pelicans have been on a roll this month with nine wins in their last 12 games. They have now jumped to fifth place in the West (35-24) in what seems to be a close race between the 5th and 8th spot bracket. Complementing their play, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo took to ‘First Take’ and lauded the Pels depth. While rolling out the praise, he also touched upon the uncanny resemblance between Pelicans Center Jonas Valanciunas and Kansas City Chief’s tight-end Travis Kelce.
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After the Pels’ 115:92 win over the Knicks, Russo, during the show, admired the effort despite missing their lead guard CJ McCollum,
“The Pelicans got a lot of players. They have two big offensive players, the kid Murphy can shoot. McCollum didn’t even play. They can play some defense if they have to. The Travis Kelce lookalike in Valanciunas, you gotta throw him in too.”
Mad Dog: The Pelicans got a lot of players… That kid Murphy can play… They’ve got the Travis Kelce look alike in Valanciunas
Stephen A: We gotta get their parents together and investigate that family tree pic.twitter.com/9itC2zjzOR
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) February 28, 2024
Upon hearing the remarks, co-host Brian Windhorst let out a laugh. Meanwhile, this remark from Russo also invoked a rather hilarious angle to the story from Stephen A. Smith. After agreeing that Kelce and Valanciunas seem like doppelgangers, Smith called for an ‘investigation’ into the Kelce and Valaciunas family to discover if they are related in any way.
“I’ve been saying it for years. I say get their parents together and we gotta investigate that [family]tree. They look like brothers,” quipped Stephen. A Smith.
So, is there any truth to the claim that the NBA starting center and NFL legend are lookalikes? This wasn’t the first time that such a similarity has been pointed out. In 2020, fans saw the resemblance when the two were in proximity to each other.
Are Travis Kelce and Jonas Valanciunas doppelgangers?
In 2020, when Valanciunas was a part of the Memphis Grizzlies and they were playing the Los Angeles Lakers, the Kansas City Chiefs star tight end was in the front-row seat. During the game, the broadcast switched to a split-screen, showing Kelce and Valanciunas side by side.
Considering they almost had the same beard type, their facial features prominently resembled each other. Therefore, fans had their mind blown when they were treated with these visuals.
In addition to this incredible camera bite, there was another incident that captured their similarity. After Kelce and his Chiefs won the Super Bowl, while watching the live broadcast on TV, one of the Pelicans Center’s teammates started to shout “Travis, we won!” Meanwhile, Valanciunas started to celebrate hilariously as if he was the real Kelce.
It seems that the highly productive Center has embraced his resemblance with Kelce. And why not? Getting compared to one of the best tight-ends ever and 3x Super Bowl champion is rather an honor. At any rate, a picture of the two standing side-by-side can further spark this narrative.
