With the hapless Celtics getting crushed by the Golden State Warriors, perhaps the most memorable takeaway from Wednesday's game at Boston Garden was that a man bearing a strong resemblance to Tupac Shakur was in the building.
"Fake Tupac," as he has become known, looks a lot like the late rapper. At Wednesday's game the impersonator donned one of Tupac's trademark bandanas and wore a goatee similar to the one the rapper had. The Tupac lookalike created quite a stir on social media.
Flynn and Feeney posted with tupac at the celtics #HesAlive pic.twitter.com/TjLUrrGJqL
— Ciaran Murphy (@Ron_Burgundy16) March 6, 2014
there's a guy here who looks like Tupac and the crowd is chanting "let's go Tupac" pic.twitter.com/0AA3jiBIQp
— Chris Dupuis (@Chris_Dupuis24) March 6, 2014
With the Celtics down big in the second half, fans began chanting for the Tupac impersonator:
Even Warriors forward Andre Iguodala couldn't help but notice Fake Tupac:
PAC was in the building tonight!
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) March 6, 2014
For reference, here's what the real Tupac, who was killed in 1996, looked like:
And here's the impersonator:
California Love is playing in the @tdgarden as they show 2pac on the jumbotron. #Celtics #NBA pic.twitter.com/Wsa0XKM7yN
— Jared Weiss (@CLNS_JaredWeiss) March 6, 2014
Reporter Jessica Camerato, who has covered the team for various local outlets, told Boston Magazine that the faux Tupac is a regular at Celtic home games, but until Wednesday his presence had not become part of the arena's musical entertainment.
"Tupac look-a-like has been coming to Celtics games for years," Camerato said. "This is first time I can recall, though, they played 'California Love' for him."