Large crowd forces Canadian streetball star Matt Kiatipis to call off 1v1 challenge in Chinatown

SINGAPORE – Canadian basketball influencer Matt Kiatipis came to Chinatown on Oct 6 looking for challengers but left without playing a single game after he got more than he bargained for.

Hundreds of enthuastics fans packed the Chinatown Complex rooftop basketball court, and the overwhelming size of the crowd which encroached into the court meant his open one-on-one challenge could not go ahead.

Kiatipis, better known as MK, only managed to shoot some hoops instead, before deciding to call off the event.

Fans had resorted to climbing the fences around the court to get a glimpse of the online celebrity, with others even gathered at the staircase landings of the adjacent HDB blocks for a better view.

Chants of “MK, MK, MK” rang out as he walked in, flanked by a posse of security personnel, and he stood out in his pink goalkeeper away jersey of the Singapore national football team.

The police were also called because of the size of the crowd, who had turned up well before his 6.30pm meet-up time, after he revealed the location on his Instagram stories at noon.

The 26-year-old Kiatipis told The Straits Times: “It’s the first day in Singapore and we were supposed to be playing, but obviously today was a little bit crazy and we weren’t able to play.

“There were so many people that came to the event today in Chinatown. There were beautiful views, tons of excited people, all good and positive energy. But unfortunately, there’s only so much space you have when you have a rooftop court.

“The Singaporean police were very nice. They dealt with the event very nicely. They let us play and just told us that we don’t want anyone hurt. We wanted to make sure that there’s space and just have fun.”

Kiatipis admitted that the turnout caught him off guard.

He added: “Every time I’ve announced an event the day of, maybe 100 people come max, traditionally (even) in bigger countries than Singapore.

“So just do the math… I wasn’t expecting that many people to come the day of the event.

“My goal is to get as many Singaporean players playing as possible – I want to see the talent in Singapore, that’s why I’m a little bit upset today because so many people crowded around, and I wanted to just make space for the Singapore athletes.”

Fan Micah Rijke, 15, who came down to Chinatown to meet Kiatipis, said: “I follow MK and I like when he does his basketball one-on-ones, and I think it’s a nice basketball community and it’s a nice atmosphere.

“Today was very hot... Everyone was trying to push him to the middle, and people weren’t listening, so he left in the end.”

Fellow fan Hugo Quinn, also 15, added: “He was trying to get everyone to come down (from the fence) because the police were there but no one listened.

“I’m not that disappointed because I understand where he’s coming from. Because no one’s listening, it’s not fun and everyone’s just being selfish.”

Kiatipis, who is from Newmarket, Ontario, has built a following of more than 5 million across Instagram and TikTok with videos of him taking on challengers in one-on-one games at outdoor courts around the world.

He played college basketball at Canada’s Simon Fraser University before transferring to a school in the United States, where the Covid-19 pandemic cut short his season.

He then had a professional stint in Costa Rica before turning to content creation.

Kiatipis has since made it his mission to establish one-on-one basketball as a sport in its own right, separate from the traditional five-a-side and 3x3 formats.

“I didn’t know what to expect, so to be here now, coming from Covid, that journey all in between is just a dream come true,” said Kiatipis on his rise.

“I’m bringing the community together, playing a new sport (which is) one-on-one. Before, it was like five-on-five in the street, and then I condensed it down to one-on-one where more people could play.

“We started from the streets up into the craziest things you could possibly think of. We could be on the Chinatown rooftop in Singapore, and we’ll be in a stadium the next day, and then we’ll be in the favelas.

“There’s just so much diversity that we bring into this one sport, and we are the leaders of one-on-one basketball. In the future, I’ll want to expand one-on-one to different sports, absolutely, because we are collabing through basketball with so many different sports.”

Singapore is the second stop of his Asia tour – he was in Jakarta from Oct 1 to 3, when he held a coaching clinic and took on local players at the King of Ballers streetball event.

Despite being unable to compete in his one-on-one challenges in Chinatown, Kiatipis said he plans to have more events before he leaves the country.

“We’re looking to do some more events in Singapore while we’re here. We were only supposed to stay until Oct 9, but we are looking to extend a little bit longer and play.

“Maybe two or three more events… And now that we know there’s so many people, we want to invite even more people to come, but make sure that we have some space to actually get the one-on-ones done.”

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