He can handle anything the Oklahoma City Thunder throw at him. He’s sideline reporter Nick Gallo

There is someone who the Oklahoma City Thunder simply cannot stop. They simultaneously send multiple players — sometimes about half the roster, it seems — to try to derail him. They surround him. They talk over him. They put hats on him. They put jackets on him. They cover him with towels. Nothing works.

He is Nick Gallo.

He is the Thunder sideline reporter. And after Thunder victories, Gallo’s on-court interviews with the player of the game have become must-see TV, simply because nobody knows what the team will do in an effort to playfully torture him next.

“I feel like I owe it to them to deliver the best of myself so they can have their moment,” Gallo said. “That’s really kind of the place that I try to operate from. And I guess I’ve just gotten the reps now at stuff coming at me.”

Let’s be very clear here: The Thunder mean no harm. It’s clear they adore Gallo, look at him as part of the team, and love that they can’t get him to break.

They’ve come out with T-shirts bearing his name and likeness. They’ve made him bark like a dog before they’ll let him sign off. They come up behind him when he’s talking and dust off his shoulders. They stacked so many towels on his head, neck and shoulders during one interview that NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finally had to intervene.

“Y’all gotta chill,” Gilgeous-Alexander said to his teammates, on air, mid-interview. “I’m sorry, Nick.”

There’s no need to apologize. Gallo doesn’t mind any of this.

Just about every televised game — in just about every sport — has the “walk-off” interview, where a sideline reporter will talk to a star player or the player of the game for a couple of minutes to get their instant, on-air feedback. (Networks almost always work with the team to request a certain player, and the team then gets them to the reporter quickly after the game.) When Chet Holmgren got to the Thunder, he didn’t mind doing the walk-off interview when requested but insisted on having another teammate with him.

And now, it’s become just part of the Thunder DNA. When a guy talks, his teammates will be right there to support him and be part of the show.

Gallo didn’t set out to be a viral sensation. It just sort of happened.

“A lot of times in media, we talk about reporters trying to gain the trust of the players and often that feels like a one-way transaction,” Gallo said. “But I really trust them to an incredible degree, and I hope that shows through. These guys are extremely trustworthy. And the fact that they’ve gone out of their way to include me in this is an incredible honor. I don’t take that for granted at all.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba