Ex-College Basketball Player Wins Free Cruise After Being Randomly Selected For Skills Contest At Heat Game

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The vast majority of colleges and professional sports franchises intersperse games with various contests that give spectators a chance to walk away with some sort of prize if they can answer a trivia question or rise to the moment in a skills challenge.

That includes the many basketball teams that give fans a chance to show off their skills on the hardwood, which frequently involves giving one lucky ticketholder the opportunity to hit the half-court shots that are frequently accompanied by a cash prize that’s awarded for a successful attempt.

There’s also another popular format that involves hitting a lay-up, a free throw, and a three-pointer in a set amount of time, which one student at the University of Louisville was able to do in 2017 only to be denied the $38,000 jackpot because they’d played basketball in high school.

The stakes were a bit lower at a Miami Heat game earlier this week where one person was randomly selected to take part in that particular skills contest for the chance to win a trip on a Carnival Cruise.

The fan in question made quick work of the challenge, as they easily sank the first two shots before nailing the trey on the second attempt to secure the free vacation well within the 30-second time limit.

There’s a reason it looked as effortless as it did, as it turns out the contestant was none other than Joey Rodriguez, the former VCU guard who shot 80.3% from the charity stripe and 35.4% from behind the arc during the 142 games he played as a member of the Rams between 2007 and 2011

Rodriguez (who currently serves as an assistant coach at Florida International University) hinted he didn’t go out of his way to let the people who picked him to participate in the contest know about his background, and when you consider the prize, it’s pretty hard to blame him.

Well played, Joey, Well played.