What could be more joyful for tennis star Roger Federer than taking a selfie with coach Steve Kerr courtside at a Warriors game? What sounds like a wholesome moment was actually a case of mistaken identity.
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Meet Steve Gillis, an honors English teacher at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas. Gillis doesn’t only share his first name with Steve Kerr, but also his face, and on a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, he finally told the full story of how Federer ended up taking a selfie with the wrong Steve.
“Roger takes the phone off my chest, and turns, and takes a picture, and says, ‘Thank you.’ He puts his arm around me, does like a double pat,” Gillis said, recalling the incident.
“You interpret it how you want, but clearly, there was some mistaken recognition of what the situation was,” he said. “I just got a picture with my favorite athlete of all time, and I didn’t even bargain for it.”
Asked by Torre whether he felt any need to tell Federer the truth, Gillis said it all happened too fast. “It was nine seconds,” he said. “All I could do is say thank you.”
Gillis didn’t set out to fool anyone. Federer approached him, and to this day, Gillis isn’t sure whether Federer knew he wasn’t Kerr.
Gillis described Roger Federer as one of his top favorite athletes of all time, along with Stephen Curry. The incident occurred back on March 9, 2024, when the Warriors hosted the San Antonio Spurs. Gillis’ siblings had given him tickets to his first-ever Warriors game as a birthday present.
Since he wasn’t sitting very far from the floor, the camera picked up on his appearance almost instantly. Commentators were quick to point out the uncanny similarities between him and coach Steve Kerr.
“He looks more like Steve than Steve,” said the commentators as they observed Gillis among the audience.
Interestingly, even security personnel moved him as close to the tunnel as possible in hopes of having Steve Kerr accidentally spot his lookalike.
The two Steves finally connect
Steve Kerr and Steve Gillis have a ton in common. Their first name, their face, and both of them are coaches. Gillis runs the Summerlin Volleyball Academy, which he founded with his wife, and was an assistant coach on the U.S. men’s national volleyball team in 1998.
During one of the Warriors’ preseason games against the Lakers, Steve Gillis once again graced the stands. This time, he caught Kerr’s attention without even trying. Kerr could be seen looking visibly confused at the sight of his own face staring back at him from the stands.
Not long after, Torre brought the two Steves together in a group chat.
“Thank you, Pablo! Hey Steve, has anyone ever told you that you are a stunningly handsome man?” Kerr cheekily wrote in the group chat.
Kerr even pitched a prank. The two would vote one after the other on November 3 and see if Breitbart questioned the election for someone “voting twice.”
Kerr has added Gillis to his contacts, and according to Torre, the two are already making plans to spend time together during a quieter stretch of Kerr’s schedule. After more than two years of being mistaken for each other, it may be the start of a beautiful friendship.