Athletic success can be fleeting. Oftentimes, glory on the hardwood or the gridiron will be limited to one’s youth, and triumphs in the athletic arena become fewer and farther between as the years stretch on.
Well for one Santa Maria resident, his ultimate athletic triumph occurred almost a decade after he played his final varsity basketball game. When Travis Milne set out to attend the Lakers-Suns game on Nov. 4, there was no way he could have anticipated a scenario in which he would be called on to deliver in the clutch with the entire Staples Center watching. Yet that was exactly the situation that unfolded when team representatives approached Milne in the concourse during halftime. Milne was selected to shoot the Bellagio Big Shot Jackpot between the third and fourth quarters and earned a cool $35,000 by making his shot from half court.
Milne moved to Santa Maria from Santa Barbara in 2005. He had previously attended San Marcos High School where he had made the sophomore basketball team. After moving, Milne attended Pioneer Valley High School, and in both his junior and senior seasons was selected to the varsity basketball team before graduating in 2007.
Since then, Milne has not been a stranger to a basketball. He plays pick-up basketball when he can: Indoor preferably at a church his friend opens, and in the city league put on by the Recreation and Parks Department.
A die-hard Lakers fan, Milne said that he tries to make it to at least one game every year, although last year, he attended two games because of the retirement of Kobe Bryant. However his most recent experience would bring him closer to the floor than ever before—especially since his tickets for the game were in the upper section. Milne stated there was at least one game in 2009 where he had good seats in the lower section but nothing like the experience of being on the court.
Still, when it came time to shoot a half-court shot, Milne was unfazed. He said he wasn’t nervous because he had no real expectation of making the shot in the first place. Also, the experience of being on the floor at the Staples Center is unlike any other arena in the NBA because of the lighting. “You can’t really see the crowd when you’re on the court,” Milne was told just before he took the court. Once on the court, Milne said he “could see the first couple of rows but you don’t really notice how many people are watching” because of the lighting.
After making the improbable shot, Milne pointed to his forearms, a favorite move of the Lakers’ young guard D’Angelo Russell, to let everyone know, he had “ice in his veins.” The Staples Center crowd erupted in cheers and a number of the Lakers came onto the court to congratulate Milne.
This article appears in Nov 17-24, 2016.