You probably don’t remember Michael Graham. If you do, it was for his one year in college as a member of the NCAA championship-winning Georgetown Hoyas. Yes, the Hoyas that had Patrick Ewing and John Thompson, the big star-studded Georgetown Hoyas.
Well, for the 1985-86 season, Michael Graham was a member of the Albany Patroons. He only played eleven games before he had a disagreement with head coach Phil Jackson, and the coach cut Graham from the team.
Graham bounced around the minor leagues for a few years, and eventually settled into life after basketball. And in 2013, he purchased a Powerball lottery ticket from a gas station convenience store.
And according to this story from the Washingtonian newspaper, Graham hit five of the winning numbers. He missed the Powerball number, but still won a cool million dollars.
With his lottery winnings, Graham is in the process of opening a barbecue restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area. I wish him all the best success in this endeavor, and it’s nice to know that there are still happy endings in the sports world.
Plus, the guy’s a former Patroon. You gotta celebrate that.
Chuck The Writer 