Kai Cenat is relentless.
The popular content creator took his streaming creativity to another level by, at 5-foot-4, starting the Little Basketball Association, where the 22-year-old is playing in a five-day basketball league against some of the most talented kids from the metro Atlanta area. Each of Cenat’s games is streamed on his channel and played in the OTE Arena. Celebrity guests so far have included 2 Chainz, Lil Yachty, Dennis Smith Jr, Deshae and Brooklyn Frost, Ekane, Agent 00, Tylilshow, Camo!, Punga, Manni Supreme and Dezz.
Autumn Johnson, a part of the WNBA national coverage team on ION Television and an NCAA women’s basketball correspondent, is the league’s official sideline reporter. Bria “The Voice of Atlanta Basketball” Janelle and Chris “CM The DJ” Marks also serve as the in-arena hosts.
After Cenat’s team, the New York Sky, won its first three games of the LBA season, the team advanced to the league championship game, which tips off on Oct. 2.
“It took everything,” Cenat told Johnson after the game. “It took blood, sweat, tears just to be able to hit the court with my guys right here. They’re balling. They’re having fun. We’re hooping. On Wednesday, we finally go to the championship, an automatic advance, and we have the best record in the whole LBA. So, I’m locked in, I’m focused and I’m ready to ball out.”
The Sky faced the Phoenix Towers, led by Halo Epps, 2 Chainz’s son. The Sky added 10-year-old rapper Lil RT into the starting lineup on Sept. 30. RT dawned a Nike shiesty mask and black Air Forces in the game.
Game 3 for Kai Cenat tonight. Lil RT has been added to the starting lineup. He’s facing Halo’s team. pic.twitter.com/XdsBseXUUc
— Rashad Milligan (@RashadMilligan) September 30, 2024
“RT has that defense,” Cenat said in his postgame press conference. “He’s got that aggression in him.”
Going into the LBA, Cenat told his viewers he was retiring from streaming to pursue a career in professional basketball. When asked if he was going to come back to streaming after the LBA championship, Cenat just said, “We’ll wait and see.”
As Cenat took a step back from the streaming world, he slipped in the most-subscribed users on Twitch rankings. Once No. 1 on the platform, Cenat is now No. 4. His record for most subscriptions on Twitch, set when he live streamed a sleepover with comedians Druski and Kevin Hart in June, has now been broken by Ironmouse, a no-face gaming streamer. Ironmouse is currently on day 31 of a sub-a-thon.
“I want to go ahead and congratulate Ironmouse for breaking my record,” Cenat said. “W Ironmouse, you feel what I’m saying. She really did that. But I promised one thing to my supporters and that was broken, you feel me? So we’re going to have to see what happens in the future.”
The thing Cenat promised his supporters in the past is if someone ever broke his record he’d do another subathon.
“It’s really n— that could take it,” Cenat said, “but best believe, on my life, gang, if my s— was to get broken, bro. I’m going right back to – bro, how legendary is that? Imagine your record and you coming right back and snatching that s—, bro?”
Cenat was talking to Agent00 on his stream when he brought up the possibility.
“Imagine if a n— breaks that record like two months later, what do you do?” Agent00 said. “Another subathon!”
Cenat has done multiple marathons on his streams, including every time he tries to beat a video game. He also streamed for 30 days starting in February 2023. That was the first time he set the subscriber record. FaZe Clan, a group that includes Black content creators Plaqueboymax, Silky and Yourrage, has also been on a subathon for the month of September.
