Ranveer Singh raps at NBA. Shang-Chi star doesn't know how to react. Indians cringe.

Ranveer Singh often gets to attend high-profile basketball games as he is after all, the Indian brand ambassador for NBA. But Indians back home seem to be feeling more embarrassed than proud for all his NBA antics overseas. 

The man who even made basketball legend Shaqille O’Neal dance on Khali Bali and third-wheeled with the now-broken up couple Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly, recently played at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Basketball game at Utah, on February 18. 

Ranveer goes to NBA

Singh, who was in former professional basketballer Dwayne Wade’s team, was joined by high-profile American celebs like Indian-origin comedian Hasan Minhaj, rapper 21 Savage, and Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu. The perpetually loud and hyperactive Singh made sure that he bonded with everyone inside and outside the court.

NBA India uploaded a photograph of him chatting up with Ben Affleck with the caption, “Gully Boy x Gone Girl”. If you thought the caption is cringe-inducing, wait till you see Hasan Minhaj’s Instagram video where Singh tried to revisit his Gully Boy character with some absurd rap bars. 

While Minhaj told his teammates in the locker room that they need to get Singh up on the scoreboard “on behalf of the 4.561 billion people of Asia”. And then the man himself appears and addresses the team with his poetic verses. 

21 Savage seemed to force a chuckle while Minhaj jokingly said, “You got bars.” 

Excited for coming up with the verse of the century, Singh pointed a finger at Simu Liu who looked arguably unimpressed. He even asked Singh, “They really call you that?”, following which the Cirkus star said, “I wish I was in a freaking Marvel franchise”. Well, Marvel already featured Farhan Akhtar in Ms Marvel and the Ibu Hatela actor from Gunda in Eternals. Singh too might most likely qualify as an unhinged villain or an annoying sidekick (hopefully not to Liu’s Shang-Chi). 

How are Indians reacting?

Most of the Indian Twitterati seem to be embarrassed of Singh’s activities at NBA terming them as “cringe” and calling him a “wannabe”. The reactions ranged from “Never let him rap again” to “Hasan Minhaj posting this knowing exactly how cringe it would be is brown on brown crime” to “Ranveer setting us 100 years back with each sentence”!

Not Ranveer’s first cringefest at NBA

Often dubbed as the Greek Freak, basketballer Giannis Antetokounmpo was also subjected to Singh’s locker room slogans, “Be bold, don't be meek, that's the motto when your coach is the Greek Freak”. 

During an NBA game from 2022, Singh even gave him an over-the-top pep-talk that made Indians go through similar second-hand embarrassment. Talking to Antetokounmpo, Singh got into a “melodramatic coach from a melodramatic sports flick” mode with his speech ending with “To the top of the pops baby”. 

Thankfully, the Greek Freak still seems to be genuinely entertained by Singh’s antics unlike Liu. He even learnt the “Tattad Tattad” step from the Ram-Leela actor! 

Talking about dance steps, Singh has also managed to make Shaqille O’Neal dance on his hit song Khali Bali from Padmaavat. During a game in Dubai, Singh even barged in on one of Shaq’s video calls, telling the person on the phone in a forced accent, “Habibi, come to Dubai”. 

Seated between Singh and Shaq at this moment was comedian and TV host Steve Harvey. In another video, the latter could be seen appreciating Singh’s notoriously eccentric fashion as he said, “I like all of this.” The two crossed paths again during a UFC match as is evident from a selfie where Singh got super-close to Harvey and posted it on Instagram with the caption, “BIG SEXY”. 

Singh clearly loves interacting with foreign guests even when they land on his own soil. So, when producer and singer Pharrell Williams (who recently got appointed as the new menswear creative director of Louis Vuitton) decided to visit India during Holi, only the colourful Ranveer Singh could be his guide to the festival of colours.

Similar to how B-Town celebs bombarded Ed Sheeran, Pharrell was spotted in the photographs of many actors clinging on to him. Singh too stuck on to him for most of the day with Pharell looking like he’s a kid trapped in an awkward family function. 

Most of the photos-turned-meme templates showed Pharrell to be visibly tired or not just matching his Bollywood friend’s energy. We feel you Pharrell!