What's it like portraying LeBron and AD? Two NBA body doubles tell their stories

THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS' 2023-24 pregame hype video centered on an ambitious conceit.

There was one day to film it before training camp. And the first Monday of October, Lakers media day, was already filled with requests for LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the rest of L.A.'s players, who were bouncing from station to station in full Lakers uniforms in a scene ripped from a "This is SportsCenter" commercial shoot.

The finished video, which graces the Crypto.com Arena video board before every Lakers home game this season, features players standing frozen inside futuristic-looking cryogenic chambers while a "power transfer" taps into each player's talents and distributes them among the group.

When the fantastical transmission is complete, each player emerges from his chamber and participates in typical hype video activities such as palming a basketball, looking directly into the camera and screaming and dribbling between his legs as the lens zooms in.

But with James and Davis already being pulled in more directions than their daily itinerary can typically handle -- participating in 1-on-1 interviews, reading league-mandated PSAs, filming comedic elements to run during timeouts -- the Lakers' superstars were in need of an assist to keep the production in motion.

Enter actors Sherman Gay and Lorenzo "Zo" Davis II:

James' and Davis' body doubles.

The Lakers hired the 6-foot-7, 225-pound Gay to play James, and his friend and fellow player turned actor, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound Davis II, to play Davis (no relation).

Even the most fervent fans wouldn't be able to spot the difference when a split-second splice of a torso wearing a Lakers No. 3 uniform is Davis II and not Davis, or a zoomed-in appendage wearing an arm sleeve is Gay's and not James'. Which is exactly the point.

It's a production trick that's been around for decades. Famed director Frank Darabont even filmed his own hands in some scenes requiring a closeup of Tim Robbins' character's mitts in "The Shawshank Redemption" to bank material without burdening his actor with the extra work. And it's a common industry practice for hoops stars that are used to the same accommodations as their Hollywood counterparts.

"We fill in the blanks," Gay told ESPN. "So they have LeBron, they shoot him. They might want him to do something, but you know, you only got him for a certain time period."

There's an obvious parallel between the scarcity of a star on set and the fleeting nature of a playing career. Staying around the game of basketball -- and making a living at it -- through acting gigs is a niche field for a handful of former players like Gay. In many ways, the career path portraying a player on screen can be just as arduous, just as random, just as consuming and, ultimately, just as fulfilling as playing in the actual games.

"We didn't make it to the NBA," Gay said. "I enjoyed my career overseas. But it was another way to stay connected to basketball. Still work in that world. Still do something you love, but just in a different aspect."

TWO WEEKS AFTER Gay and Davis II found out HBO's "Winning Time" was being canceled following its second season -- thus ending the role of a lifetime for Gay, a Los Angeles native being paid to play a young Magic Johnson, and shutting off steady work for Davis II, after portraying everyone from Bill Russell to Caldwell Jones to Artis Gilmore on the drama series -- they punched the clock at the Lakers' practice facility as body doubles for James and Davis.

For Gay, the transition wasn't quite as simple as inverting the No. 32 on the purple and gold uniform to No. 23, lengthening the shorts and trimming down the hair.

But as equipped as Gay was to portray Johnson through the osmosis of being an '80s baby born in Carson, California, who played his high school ball in Compton and then starred at Loyola Marymount University, acting like James the Laker wasn't a role that was out of his reach.

He'd already spent months with James on the set of "Space Jam: A New Legacy" in the summer of 2019, serving as James' body double. And Gay booked similar work for a 2020 GMC Hummer EV commercial, featuring James, that aired on Super Bowl Sunday.

"Pretty much anytime I have a shoot, he's there with me," James told ESPN when asked about Gay. "So, it's great to have him around."

For Matt Shelton, the director of game entertainment for the Lakers and who was in charge of bringing the hype video to life, Gay and Davis II were easy choices.

"When casting a body double, the first thing we're looking for is people with athletic ability in that sport," Shelton told ESPN. "This helps with the build of their body matching the star they are portraying along with competence in ballhandling. Both combine to help the viewer believe they are the star we are portraying them as."

Davis II is 40. His days of being named the All-Star Game MVP for a semi-pro league -- something called the Universal Basketball Association -- might have passed him, but he was still in good enough shape during "Winning Time" to practice wearing a 30-pound weighted vest so when it was time to film he was, in his words, "dunking everything."

And Gay is 41. It's been 23 years since he teamed with 19-year NBA veteran Tyson Chandler at Dominguez High School to win the national championship.

"I love Sherm," Chandler told ESPN. "Had a nice feel for the game. He played like the 3-4. He was a slasher type. He had game comparable to [Toronto Raptors forward Pascal] Siakam. Clearly not to Siakam's level, but that was his game. And just a cool dude."

It's been 18 years since Gay was the West Coast Conference's Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at Loyola Marymount. And it's more than three years since he last played professionally in France. His playing days are becoming more and more distant. His acting days are more top of mind now. Gay still can't forget the first time he played Carmelo Anthony's body double for a sneaker advertisement and was blown away by his good fortune.

"We got the check, and I was like, 'Oh, okay,'" Gay said. "And then we got the residuals and I was like, 'Oh my God, you can get this for, like, pretending to play basketball?!"

Davis, who said he regularly watched "Winning Time," admitted that he can't watch any scripted content centered on basketball without applying his trained eye.

"You look at the acting and it's like, 'How did they do on the basketball side?'" Davis told ESPN. "Also you watch something like 'Coach Carter,' it's cool seeing the plays they're running to see if it's as realistic as it should be. So I definitely look at the basketball side of it and look at it from a sense of, 'Man, they did a really good job of making it seem very real.' Like even the players' jump shots or how they dribble -- all those things. I look at it from a basketball lens."

On "Winning Time," all of the basketball actually looking legitimate was left up to famed hoops guru Idan Ravin, who's trained many NBA greats over the past 20 years and worked as a producer on the show. Beyond organizing gym time and running practices to teach the broad strokes of the sport to actors with limited basketball background like Quincy Isaiah, who was cast as Johnson, Ravin also worked with the body double brigade to turn them into the "silhouettes" of their characters.

"I had to run differently," Gay said about honing in on Johnson. "And have my legs up higher, my knees up higher. Exaggerated motion.

"Shooting like him. Moving like him."

Oftentimes, the most discerning viewers are the athletes Gay and Davis II are working to emulate.

Davis II recalls being on set for a NBA 2K15 video game commercial at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas when Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Paul George and Davis arrived to see their body doubles already in identical gym clothes to their NBA superstar counterparts.

"They walk up on us and it's like, 'That's not me,'" Davis II told ESPN. "Like, 'I don't look like that!'"

With the four All-Stars watching, their body doubles practiced the basketball sequence that the spot needed.

Davis II, who played his college hoops at Division II Fort Valley State in Georgia, tried to stick with five different G League teams: the Bakersfield Jam, Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Dakota Wizards, Sioux Falls Skyforce and L.A. D-Fenders. He stamped his passport playing everywhere from Romania and Taiwan to the Dominican Republic and Mexico, where he was mostly known for his defense and dunking.

However, this role required him to reproduce Durant's jump shot -- with its author in the audience.

"I'm like, 'Man, I got to make every shot,'" Davis II recalled. "'I can't miss any.'"

They ran through the sequence three times. It called for Davis II to make a move on the ball and then hit a 3-pointer from the corner. He hit the first two.

But just before the third runthrough, Durant repositioned himself right where Davis II was shooting.

"[Durant] gets up and walks around and just kind of sits kind of on the edge of the court on the baseline side," Davis II said. "Just sits there.

"And I'm like, 'Oh my God. This is like pressure right now. I got to make this one.'"

Davis II hit the shot, his third in a row, and then delivered the line of the day to Durant, George, Curry and Davis.

"I was like, 'All right, B Team is up,'" Davis II said with a chuckle. "And they started laughing."

MAKE NO MISTAKE: As much as Gay and Davis II appreciate the opportunities they've received working as body doubles and stand-ins on productions featuring prominent basketball players (or featuring thespians attempting to play prominent basketball players), they want to be delivering lines that are scripted -- not just off-the-cuff remarks on set.

The role Davis II is most proud of to date was an episode of the second season of "Bel-Air," Peacock's modern take on the '90s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," in which he plays a basketball coach. Maybe not much of a stretch, but it was a step forward. Especially after he got the role by appearing as a background actor in the first season and apparently making a good impression with the production crew.

"When I did 'Bel-Air,' that was my first time being on a TV show where I had lines and I was on it," Davis II said. "Like, that was me. And so I wasn't doubling for somebody. It wasn't, 'Hey, this might get cut this time.'"

The title of the episode was appropriate for Davis II and Gay's journey: "Pursuit of Happiness."

"Most of the roles I've got still have been basketball players -- and that's obviously something we know how to do because we play basketball -- but we're definitely transitioning more into trying to get bigger roles," Gay said.

But like a team that will run the same pick-and-roll over and over again so long as the defense is unable to stop it, Davis II and Gay aren't looking to abandon what's been working for them as they pursue more substantial acting gigs.

Gay was Draymond Green's body double for the NBA's commercial promoting the inaugural in-season tournament. He didn't have to pretend to play basketball for that one -- Green's role in the spot is of a uniformed security guard, ushering in the NBA Cup through a casino floor.

Three years into retirement, Chandler has stayed involved with the Dallas Mavericks as a volunteer player development coach, offering tutelage to rookie big man Dereck Lively II. Coincidentally, Davis II also worked out with Lively II during the Duke alum's pre-draft process in L.A.

While Chandler's career included a championship, an Olympic gold medal, a Defensive Player of the Year distinction and nearly $190 million in salary alone, he has the utmost respect for Gay's path in the game.

"Professional careers to me are professional careers, no matter whatever level they're at," Chandler said. "If you're putting the grind in, you're putting the grind in."

Gay cheered on Chandler, meeting up with him in London when the center was competing with Team USA in 2012. Chandler now finds himself rooting for his high school pal.

"I always spot him either as a double or in a commercial or something and I'm like, 'Sherm!' I always say it out loud. ... It's just dope to see him doing his thing," Chandler said.

"I'm happy that he has this. Because it's a whole 'nother life for him to reinvent himself. And he just continues to grow. I keep seeing him in more and more things. So, whoever knows where it goes because I feel like it's just a building block for him."

James turns 39 at the end of the month and knows his playing days are numbered. That perspective allows him to appreciate what guys like Gay and Davis II are doing.

"You know, you can't play basketball your whole life," James said when asked about how Gay's career has ventured. "But you can [act] -- as long as you are athletic and look a part -- you can definitely do that."

But James has some notes for Gay to work on before his next gig doubling for the Lakers star.

"My walk," James said with a laugh. "Only me and my mom walk like me, so that's going to be hard."