Watch: OKC Thunder fan nails half-court shot to win hefty $20,000
The OKC Thunder have been enjoying a lot of success in the ongoing NBA playoffs. And it seems so do their hometown fans, as one of them drained a half-court shot in Game 2 of the Thunder's Western Conference semifinal showdown against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday to win a cool $20,000.
Matt Sanders was the latest big winner of the Thunder's game-break activities at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City when he drained a half-court shot that netted him the hefty cash prize, sending the arena into collective celebration.
The NBA posted a clip of the nifty shot on X/Twitter:
Sanders, wearing a blue OKC Thunder jersey, lined up at half-court and coolly sunk the shot right between the eye of the basket and was immediately flanked by the arena staff and the team's mascot Rumble the Bison as they celebrated the big shot.
He was then handed a check worth $20,000 as they were in the middle of their celebration.
It marked the third time in four home playoff games that a fan hit a half-court shot.
Meanwhile, OKC was in the middle of a battle against the Mavs in Game 2 as they tried to go 2-0 up in their series.
At the halfway point of the game, the home team was trailing the visitors, 68-62.
MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was leading the charge for the Thunder with 18 points, backstopped by Jalen Williams' 14.
Dallas, meanwhile, was paced by PJ Washington's 19 points and Luka Doncic's 18 markers.
Shaquille O'Neal believes OKC Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should have been MVP
This season's MVP race is over and the winner was not OKC Thunder's do-it-all leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This was something that NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal was not in total agreement with.
Speaking on "Inside the NBA" after it was announced that Denver Nuggets superstar big man Nikola Jokic was the 2024 NBA Most Valuable Player, Shaq – a one-time league MVP – shared that based on his criteria, the award should have been given to Gilgeous-Alexander.
Shaq said:
'I felt SGA deserved it... I thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of only a few players to have 20 points 50 times, stat stuffer, great season, his team is No. 1, nobody expected them to be No. 1, I thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was going to win it by far."
Check out what Shaquille O'Neal had to say below, beginning at 1:08:
"SGA" finished runner-up to Jokic in the MVP voting. "The Joker" received 79 out of 99 votes in this season's race, with Gilgeous-Alexander getting 15 and Luka Doncic getting four.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.1 points on a 53.5% shooting clip, 6.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals to help the OKC Thunder (57-25) to the best record in the West Conference.
Shaq will be hoping that the Canadian star can use the setback as further motivation moving forward in the playoffs and for next season.