If only the Portland Trailblazers had the touch of David Dalla Gasperina this season.
The basketball fan drained a 94-foot putt from one end of the court to the other during an in-game promotion at the Trailblazers game on March 25 at the Moda Center. The putt earned him $50,000.
No one had won the promotion, sponsored by mortgage lender Directors Mortgage, which gave one lucky fan a chance to hit a putt and have the ball go through the front door of a model house at the opposite end of the court, all season. As detailed by KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Dalla Gasperina got a call the night before saying he’d been picked to take part in the promotion during the game against the Houston Rockets.
“The person on the phone said five other people she called didn’t pick up. I was the sixth person she called. Thank you to the five other people,” Dalla Gasperina said.
Dalla Gasperina said that when he putted, he went back to his time as a musician.
“I kind of have a Zen place I can get to,” he said. “I literally told my wife, I’m going to make this putt.”
He did just that and now he and his wife are planning a trip to Italy to meet family they’ve never visited.