Brandon Armstrong is The NBA Impersonator whose impressions of basketball’s biggest names have turned him into a viral star with millions of YouTube hits. His brilliant reenactments landed him a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live following Sunday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Cavs and Warriors. Given the chance to show off some of his best work in front of a live audience, Armstrong delivered a riveting performance.
Armstrong took on several of the league’s most expressive players — including Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and James Harden. Not only does he pretty much accurately nail all of them, he includes a solid variety of impression categories — from style tendencies, to signature celebrations, and even flop form. There’s no aspect of basketball he can’t mimic, apparently.
It’ll be interesting to see if any additional impressions are born out of this year’s Finals series — Armstrong crafted a masterpiece from LeBron’s flop in the Eastern Conference Finals — but with the way that series is going, it may not last too much longer. If anything, Armstrong may just wind up playing dead to represent the Cavs’ entire team down the stretch run. I’m not quite sure how exciting that will be for everyone watching at home, though.
