An oral history of Adam Sandler, pickup basketball legend.
On a crisp Saturday morning at Reed Park in Santa Monica, Chris Collins was readying himself to play a couple games of pickup basketball when he heard an oddly familiar voice. “Yo, we need one! Blue, you’re with us!'” it rang out.
The Buffalo, New York native, who was wearing a blue shirt on that fateful morning, looked up from tying his shoes, bewildered. “At first glance, I was like, ‘No… nooooo, this guy’s dressed like such a bum,” Collins recalls. “He really was dressed like such a bum; he was literally wearing these funky, blue gas-station sunglasses, these long, baggy, shiny nylon AND1 shorts from the 2000s, a baggy grey shirt, black Nikes… just a baggy-ass outfit all around.”
But then, it dawned on him: Holy shit, this is Adam Sandler, he thought, I’ve heard about this — this is the moment.