Adam Sandler’s viral basketball moment reminds us he’s just a normal guy - The W...

It’s becoming something of a tradition on the Internet for a video of Sandler shooting hoops at a random place to go viral. In 2019, it was the Sandman at an LA Fitness in Atlanta. The venue this week was an outdoor court in Long Island, where NBA reporter Anthony Puccio said he’s been playing often.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“The way I met Sandler was playing basketball with him,” “Uncut Gems” producer Sebastian Bear-McClard told the Ringer’s Alan Siegel. “There hasn’t been a day where — no matter if we’re 3,000 miles away — where he’s not like, ‘Do you want to hoop today? I’m playing hoop in half an hour. Come meet me.’ It’s kind of like, I think, his deepest catharsis.”

So, yes, the dude really loves basketball. But that also might hint at what makes him so apt to go viral online in the first place: He may be one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, but rather than spend his seemingly endless dough on fancy restaurants, tailored clothes and private courts, he’s out here with everyone else. It’s the old “celebrities, they’re just like the rest of us” cliche, except in this case, it seems like he actually might be.

It doesn’t hurt that he’s stingy with the press but generous with fans, often stopping to take selfies with anyone who asks. Or that he arranges his filming schedule around his children’s school schedule.

And it certainly doesn’t hurt that Sandler, 54, is frequently referred to as one of the “nicest guys in Hollywood.”

“He carries no movie star bravado. When he wants to play basketball at the Sony Athletic Center with his Happy Madison crew, he doesn’t request that the courts be reserved for them alone. He could, but he doesn’t. He and his crew call next game like every one else. If they lose, they let the next team up play,” wrote former Sony Studios liaison Ken Miyamoto in a gushing post about the actor on Quora, which Slate republished.

“I can’t explain how wonderful of a person he is,” the usually unserious Pete Davidson has said. “He’s definitely the best. Just like caring and sweet and not full of crap. Which is very rare to find.”

In a rare interview with Sandler, for the New York Times Magazine, Jamie Lauren Keiles wrote that he has the “vibe of an older, married uncle, smirking and good-natured.” She then included a list of celebrity endorsements of his kindness, from Jennifer Aniston (“I would lead with ‘Loyalty is his motto,’ ”) to director Paul Thomas Anderson (“I love, love, love him!”) to Conan O’Brien (“Incredibly loyal and nice.”)

Plus, in today’s attention-seeking economy, which finds celebrities making headlines for shrugging off covid-related deaths as “inevitable” or fighting a global pandemic by singing “Imagine,” there’s something refreshing about seeing a Famous Person spotted just living life.In some ways, Sandler is the anti-Bill Murray. The latter often goes viral by using his celebrity to pull little pranks, such as crashing bachelor parties to give impromptu speeches. Sandler, on the other hand, is just trying to get an assist on his teammate’s three-pointer before grabbing some flapjacks.

To wit: One of his recent viral moments stemmed from his visiting an IHOP — clad in a loose, red Northface hoodie and a pair of oversized basketball shorts, natch — only to leave after being told there was a 30-minute wait. A wait that, most likely, wouldn’t have existed if the hostess had recognized him.

It doesn’t hurt that Sandler also finds the humor in these situations. After the TikTok of him leaving IHOP blew up, he tweeted, “For the record, I only left the IHOP because the nice woman told me the all-you-can-eat deal didn’t apply to the milkshakes.”

It’s reminiscent of when he finally hosted “Saturday Night Live” some 24 years after being fired from the show. For his monologue he sang, “I was fired, not rehired, well it made me sad and blue.” Or when he named his newest stand-up special “100% Fresh,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to his movies’ usually abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores.

IHOP quickly leaped on the viral moment, declaring May 10 “Milkshake Monday,” offering all-you-can-drink milkshakes for $6.49 at all its Long Island locations.

Now obviously most of us can’t cause major breakfast food chains to create fake gluttonous holidays, but the main (if overlooked) part of the saga is that Sandler was going to an IHOP in the first place (without necessarily meaning to be documented there). Rightly or wrongly, it gives the sense that money hasn’t changed his core being — or, at least, his core appetite for double blueberry pancakes. (Celebrities! They’re just like the rest of us!)

Dovetailing with his choices of hobby and dining establishments is his fashion sense. Or, some might argue, the lack thereof.

Some actors, such as fellow popular meme subjects Jeff Goldblum and Keanu Reeves, age into style icons, often with the help of professional stylists. Sandler, whose fashion sense screams ‘90s teenager, sits on the other end of that spectrum. He’s so fond of oversized T-shirts, wraparound sunglasses and basketball shorts that hang past the knee, it’s become an endless source of memes.

This attitude seems to bleed into his movies. His goofy-voiced, sight-gag comedy never caters to critics or current trends. Sandler just seems to film what Sandler thinks is funny, which hasn’t changed much over the years. And when he does take a Serious Role, it’s rarely a flattering one. No one really wants to hang out with Howard Ratner from “Uncut Gems” or Barry Egan from “Punch-Drunk Love.”

One way or another, it works for him. He revolutionized streaming when he became the first major filmmaker to sign an exclusive movie deal with Netflix. His movies have made more than $3 billion at the worldwide box office, driven by his many (many, many) adoring fans.

But if you go looking for him, he’ll probably be posting up out on the courts. Maybe you can even hop in a game with him. If so, try to be on his side. As NBA analyst Baron Davis tweeted Monday, “Adam Sandler is a baller. You want to be on his team in pickup. He throws dimes!!!”

Oh, and take a video. It’ll probably go viral.

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