Comedian, impressionist, and erstwhile Sunday NFL TV correspondent Frank Caliendo is known among other things for his incredible Morgan Freeman. While he certainly does not look the part, Caliendo can still fool your ears into believing his voice was replaced by Freeman’s.
Thanks in part to the Players’ Tribune and its contribution to the rise of athletes writing solemn, first-person confessional essays, Caliendo’s Freeman impression has a well from which to draw. After all, what better way to lampoon a self-serious piece of writing than with the most dignified voice in Hollywood?
LeBron James’ return letter to Cleveland and Alex Rodriguez’s apology have already gotten the Caliendo treatment, and it was only a matter of time before Kevin Durant’s sorry-OKC-but-it’s-time-for-me-to-win-all-the-championships essay got it as well.
It is pretty obvious Caliendo interrupted his regularly scheduled Independence Day activities to record this, but it’s not about the aesthetics. If you close your eyes after pressing play, it really does seem like Freeman is narrating Durant’s prose. A celebration for Warriors fans, and a eulogy for the rest of the league.
About Ben Sieck
Ben is a recent graduate of Butler University where he served as Managing Editor and Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Butler Collegian. He currently resides in Indianapolis.