Dawson Gurley, better known by his YouTube channel name of BigDawsTv, has lived the dream of every NBA fan around the world for 10 minutes. The YouTuber is known for being Klay Thompson‘s lookalike and he once used that to his full advantage by sneaking into the NBA Finals.
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During his conversation with Duncan Robinson on his podcast, Gurley talked about the infamous 2022 incident where he snuck into Chase Center before the NBA Finals while pretending to be Klay Thompson.
Gurley aka Daws entered the arena during Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors were a heavy favorite to win the championship that year and everyone had high hopes from Thompson.
However, no one batted an eye when Daws made his way inside the arena and onto the court. He said, “It’s all on video. We just walked right through. We got through security.” His cameraman also got access as he was walking right behind him, and the entire clip is on his YouTube channel.
Interestingly, before pulling this off, the YouTuber had his barber give him the perfect look for the stunt. The clip uploaded on Gurley’s channel shows him getting through several security checks without breaking a sweat as they all believed he was the Warriors star player. The prospect of breezing past the security points made even Daws freak out.
Once he made his way to the court, Gurley picked up a ball and started practicing. He even managed to deceive all the camera people who were trying to setup their spot for the game. They all left the court as soon as the fake Klay started shooting his threes.
However, after a good 10 minutes of being treated like the Warriors star, Gurley’s cover was blown by someone who asked him if he has the necessary clearance to be on the court. Soon, he was escorted out of the arena, but he admitted that the security was nice to him even after they found out his reality.
Needless to say, the video was a massive hit on the internet. It has over 7.7 million views with over 258k likes. But it came with some consequences.
Fake Klay Thompson received a lifetime ban from Chase Center
After breaking into the arena on June 13th, Gurley was handed a lifetime ban from entering the Chase Center by the authorities. He shared an official letter which said that he has been “banned indefinitely from attending any future NBA, WNBA, G League, or 2K league games, or any concert and or event held at Chase Center.” As expected, the news also reached the real Klay Thompson who had an interesting response to it.
Thompson said, “Oh man, poor guy. Just trying to get some good content. You play stupid games you get rewarded stupid prizes.” As harsh as the punishment was, it did make Gurley more popular on the internet. Now, he boasts a massive 10+ million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
