SINGAPORE, Oct 8 — Canadian basketball influencer Matt Kiatipis created a huge buzz at a basketball court in Lorong Liew Lian, Upper Serangoon, where a 400-strong crowd, mostly made-up of teenagers, roared him on.

The 26-year-old, better known as MK, has built a mass following on Instagram and TikTok with videos of him taking on challengers in one-on-one games at outdoor courts around the world.

He has more than eight million followers on TikTok and Instagram, and generates more than two billion views per month.

Kiatipis announced the event at Lorong Liew Lian on his Instagram account, where he has 3.5 million followers, at around 1pm yesterday. Within hours the court was packed.

Chanting “MK, MK”, the crowd lapped up every moment of his time on court. 

Kiatipis arrived at the venue at about 6.40pm, sporting San Antonio Spurs centre Victor Wembanyama’s kit.

“MK” selected several players from the crowd for his one-on-one challenge, during which he reportedly displayed his bold personality, non-stop trash talking, taunts and physical play, giving spectators an entertaining show.

The event ended about an hour later, with the police arriving by around 7.30pm to manage the crowd, according to The Straits Times.

Kiatipis said in an Instagram later that night: “This is getting so crazy. I can’t believe it. Singapore... you filled up the entire court. You filled up the bleachers, people were watching from their (balconies) and we only announced the 1v1 six hours before.”

He added that he loved playing in front of everyone so much and updated in a story later that he plans on hosting three more 1v1 events on Oct 9, 10 and 11 while he was in town. 

“I have something special planned,” wrote Kiatipis in his update.

He said he will also plan a meet and greet so that he could meet everyone that has been supporting him.

The event at Upper Serangoon came a day after Kiatipis’ first one-on-one challenge in Singapore at Chinatown Complex’s rooftop court was cancelled due to the massive crowd. 

The police also turned up on October 6 and reportedly dispersed the crowd from the cancelled event. 

In a video posted by The Straits Times, school students in the uniform could be seen climbing onto the chain-link fence around the basketball court.

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

“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,” he said.

Singapore is his second stop on his South-east Asia tour, after visiting Jakarta from October 1 to 3. — AsiaOne