Man who made million dollar shot during basketball game had to wait two decades for all of the money

A basketball fan who made a million-dollar shot nearly didn't get paid the money by the insurance company.

At a Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat game on 14 April 1993, fans were offered $1 million if they could make a 78-foot shot through the hoop from the free-throw line at the opposite end of the basketball court.

Nineteen people had attempted the feat so far that season; none had been victorious.

Defying all the odds, Don Calhoun - a 23-year-old office supply salesman from the Chicago area - took to the court and managed to land the shot.

However, he nearly didn't receive the money promised. Catch the jaw-dropping moment here:

It was in the timeout in the third quarter of the game when Calhoun took to the court to take part in the challenge.

According to ESPN, the 23-year-old had a one percent chance of getting the ball in.

Lobbing it with one hand, the ball rose up into the air, soared across the court and fell right through the hoop.

And the crowd went absolutely wild.

The shot - which became known as The Calhoun Shot - was plastered on the front cover of every newspaper and Calhoun received praise from NBA legends Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.

Jordan told the 23-year-old: "Great shot, kid."

Bulls forward Horace Grant also said: "It took me three years to make a million and it took him five seconds."

However, the insurance company meant to cough up the money initially tried to get out of paying it.

It argued because Calhoun played basketball in college, he had broken the rules and shouldn't have been given the opportunity to step onto the court in the first place.

The sponsors of the event - including Coca-Cola and the Bulls - said they'd step up and cover the prize money if the insurance company wouldn't.

Thankfully, the insurance company later agreed to pay Calhoun, but instead of giving him the $1 million upfront, it said it would pay him $50,000 a year over two decades.

This $50,000 was taxed and subsequently Calhoun actually took home $38,000 every year.

2013 marked the last payment of the million-dollar bet, and so Calhoun should have accumulated a total of around $760,000.

Topics: US News, Money, Basketball, Sport

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.