NBA Star Plays Bingo and Wins

Talk about beginner’s luck, that is exactly what happened on Saturday at Epworth Villa in Oklahoma City. It was a retired community bingo event and the two celebrities who joined in for a fun filled afternoon were Steven Adams and Enes Kanter both centers for the Oklahoma City Thunder Basketball team.

It was Adams who spun the wheel as the bingo balls came tumbling out and announcing them as he leaned over the microphone. This was the first time Adams ever played bingo but Kanter admitted it was the second time for him.

The senior citizens to were excited as they played for the first ever with two of Oklahoma’s finest. Kanter was in true form and definitely in it to win it after he loaded up on more Bingo cards when he had played a few games with no luck.

The retirement community was delighted with Kanter’s enthusiasm to win but things took a funny turn when it was his teammate Adam’s who won the Blackout game.

‘We just played Bingo with the older folks, and I won,’ Adams said cheekily. ‘It was Blackout, it’s the hardest one you have to win. It takes some talent.’

‘I had six cards, and I still didn’t get bingo,’ Kanter sighed, before gazing over the crowd and flashing a smile. ‘It was pretty fun, talking to everyone.’

It was a perfect way to spice up the holidays for the regular players. Winners of bingo won some nice Thunder memorabilia and will be something these regular players will always remember.

‘It meant a big deal (to us),’ Bill Munsell, who had been calling bingo, said. ‘We have people that love the Thunder, but we don’t get to see them. We’re a little elderly and we can’t get down to the games. This place is loaded with TV’s when (the Thunder) is playing.’

‘When the Thunder players walked in, they were so excited waiting for them,’ Epworth Villa’s Community Resources Coordinator Brittney Baez said. ‘It was just the excitement around the holiday season, where they get to experience something they don’t get to experience on an everyday basis.’

The basketball players kept a great dialogue up with players during the bingo session and also sat at the tables chatting with them.

‘They’re hilarious,’ Baez said. ‘The jokes and the comments they made back and forth, they were listening to residents laugh and really engaged with them. I could tell they were having a great time.’

The organization did a fantastic job of bringing some holiday cheer and enhance the game of bingo.