San Francisco – Jaren Barajas shoots in her ring in the backyard maybe once a month these days. He is now an 18 -year -old occupied university student, so basketball has taken the background to academics.
On Sunday night with the world watching, Barajas somehow beat the Milwaukee Bucks star, Damian Lillard, in a 3 -point shooting contest during the star game and won $ 100,000.
“This will mean the world for me; it will help my family a lot and definitely to my future,” Barajas said. “Hopefully, it will help me to pay my education, what it will do.”
Lillard needed to make three long logos 3 to win, while Barajas had to hit only a basket for a long time. With the descending clock and Lillard was lost after it was announced that those would be the final attempts of both players, Barajas let him fly once again and sank his shot.
Outside the board, nothing less, just as his father had always taught him: use the glass. It was his sixth or seventh attempt; Neither decks nor his father were able to remember with certainty.
“I was going down to the cable, we had 30 seconds and my dad always tells me that he uses the board,” Barajas said. “That is what I had to do to enter.”
Lillard loved the fantastic finish.
“It was dramatic. He succeeded when the clock went out,” said Lillard, a native of neighbor Oakland. “I love being part of things like that where you can affect someone else.”
He was not even supposed to be here, although he had hoped to attend since Chase Center became the 2025 presenter for the mid -seasonal showcase of the NBA.
“Yesterday I was surprised with these tickets, so I didn’t even know I was going to the game,” Barajas said. “So, to have this experience, it is very surreal. I am very grateful.”
His father, Michael, monitored ticket prices and finally found something in his range on Saturday and did.
He shared the great news with his son, and arrived early at the sand from the suburb of East Bay of Oakley; Then, for pure luck, Jaren was asked if he would like to participate. The father and son could not believe his good fortune; Dad fought his emotions later.
“I wanted to go to the game. The prices were quite high, so I kept seeing the prices going down, and once I found them where I could pay them, I bought them and surprised them yesterday,” said Michael Barajas. “I can’t believe we are here, but I’m glad I have done it. He deserves it and I am proud of him.”
The former Golden State Warriors star, Barón Davis, came to congratulate Jaren, while many strangers encouraged him and asked for photos.
“Oh, man, that was incredible, a clutch performance in the bell, Steph Curry style,” said a radiant Davis. “In the Bay area. Give this man his money.”
The NBA said it would donate $ 50,000 to the newly established Lillard scholarship fund that benefits nine secondary schools in East Bay, as well as $ 50,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland and San Francisco.
Lillard thanked how well worked to impact so many.
“I knew it would be a situation to win. “That was the reason I did. I left and did the first two, and I will not say that I lost on purpose, but I did not. I was trying to make the shot. I was trying to get a quality.
Michael Barajas, who describes himself as “Semireted”, knows that the money of the award will not only help with his son’s university expenses, but will give the adolescent the opportunity to give back in some way. He is a first -year student who studies businesses at the Medanos College, a two -year school at the nearby Pittsburg. Then, he will eventually transfer.
“Everything was luck, destined to be, I don’t know,” said old Barajas, “I can’t believe it.”
Jaren Barajas was still trying to recover her breath after the experience of her life:
“I just beat Damian Lillard.”
