{"id":23630,"date":"2025-10-27T22:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/23630\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:59:18","slug":"dallas-mavericks-welcome-viral-mckinney-hoops-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/23630\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks welcome viral McKinney hoops star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">DALLAS &#8211; What started as a viral moment on the McKinney High School basketball court has turned into an unforgettable experience for a North Texas teen and his favorite NBA team.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/mavs-william.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">William Sherman, a McKinney High School junior with down syndrome, captured hearts on social media last month when a video of him hitting shots and celebrating during a varsity versus faculty basketball game spread online.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">That joy reached the Dallas Mavericks. The team invited William and his family to Sunday night\u2019s game against the Toronto Raptors, treating them to a VIP experience that included a special dinner, pregame warmups with the players, and courtside memories that William won\u2019t soon forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The Dallas Mavericks made it an unforgettable night for an unforgettable young man.<\/p>\n<p>DALLAS, TX &#8211; SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26: The Dallas Mavericks vs. The Toronto Raptors on October 26, 2025 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 Dallas Mavericks (Photo by Allison Chu\/Dallas Mavericks Photography) <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Local perspective:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">William, who also participates in McKinney ISD\u2019s Special Olympics program, is known for his competitive spirit and kind heart. Off the court, he\u2019s the oldest of four boys and can often be found cheering on his younger brothers at their own games.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ac-10-26-2025-dalvstor-105379-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">DALLAS, TX &#8211; SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26: The Dallas Mavericks vs. The Toronto Raptors on October 26, 2025 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 Dallas Mavericks (Photo by Allison Chu\/Dallas Mavericks Photography) <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">As for his favorite player? That\u2019s still Luka Don\u010di\u0107. A fitting choice for a fan who just lived out a dream night with the Mavericks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Photos in this article were provided by the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/nba\/mavericks\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/nba\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/collin-county\/mckinney\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McKinney<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS &#8211; What started as a viral moment on the McKinney High School basketball court has turned into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[960,102,104,103,4281,1247,3080,223,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-23630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-collin-county","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-mckinney","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}