How about a feel-good sports story for a change? You see all the time different challenges like half court shots and field goal attempts to win prize money. What you don’t see is anyone actually win any of these challenges. After all, hitting a half-court shot is hard. Kicking a field goal is really hard! For one 7th grader in North Dakota, it was all in a day’s work, and he got a hell of a payday! Check this out.
A seventh grader hit the biggest jackpot of his life when he netted $10,000 after a flawless shooting challenge at a high school basketball game.
JJ Franks of Minot, North Dakota, made a layup, free throw, three-pointer and half-court shot in 25 seconds to win the grand prize at Bishop Ryan Catholic School last week.
Franks had to make the shots and grab the ball himself, and he knocked down all four consecutively.
7th-grader in North Dakota makes half-court shot to win $10Khttps://t.co/XzUH3faDRd pic.twitter.com/H4mAzKCXAZ
— KTIV News Four (@ktivnews) February 2, 2023
It would be challenging enough to have a rack of balls at the ready and be able to spot up for the shots, but to have to retrieve his own ball and run back and spot up in just 25 seconds is impressive a hell. It takes nerves of steel, a cool head, and good hands to pull that off. But for the halfcourt shot, well perhaps a little divine intervention?
After making the first three quite effortlessly, he wound up and launched a Hail Mary that was nothing but net. He was immediately mobbed by players and spectators.
“You only get one shot at that, so if you miss, you miss,” he told Valley News Live.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m probably not going to make it, but I’ve just got to try and try and hope it goes in.'”
Bishop Ryan player compared Franks to the GOAT.
“Just Tom Brady throws it, banks in it. It’s just like, ‘No way.’ Everyone storms the court, and it was pretty cool,” said Ramsey Walz.
Just like life, you get one shot, so Franks took his and made the most of it.
“That was one in a million, and through the power of God, it went in,” Franks said.
“The first three, I thought he has some basketball talent, but the last shot, really, I think was maybe more a gift from God than it was some natural talent,” said his mother, Marie.
Franks is a player for the K-12 school’s junior-high team. He said the cash is going straight to his college fund.
Boom! Ten large in the bank, a viral video, and the best sports story of the weekend. A bit of a buzzkill that the cash is going in a college fund, at least let Franks have a taste and head down to the mall. Parents are going to be parents, and college is expensive, so probably a good call. As to divine intervention? Well, watching the video you can’t rule it out. Whatever the reason, it worked out well for the Franks family!
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