I’m surprised this otter doesn’t have its own hoop mixtape by now.
The NBA playoffs wrapped up yesterday, with the Denver Nuggets winning four of the first five games in the seven game series for what some in sports call a “gentlemen’s sweep.”
After the poor shooting performance by the basketball team from South Beach, the Heat’s head coach should have looked into signing this rescued sea otter to a 10 day contract.
Otters are pretty cute to start with, knowing that the otter was rescued makes it that much more adorable, and seeing that it learned to play basketball maxes out the cuteness scale. Visitors at the Oregon Zoo have started to visit in droves after hearing about this talented, basketball playing animal.
Juno the Otter is nine years old and plays basketball as a training session to help prevent arthritis and joint stiffness as she gets older. Otters are known to be playful, but not many can “hoop” like Juno can.
Real hoopers know.
Juno was rescued by the Oregon Zoo along with two other otter pup orphans that were found in California. The trio of otters was rehabilitated at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it is not known where Juno learned to be the “Michael Jordan” of the otter species.
The zoo released a fun update on Juno, saying:
“Juno loves to play basketball. She gets so excited whenever we bring the ball out. And she’s good too!
“If she chooses to, Juno can pick one of the balls up in her front paws and dunk it into her special basket. She also ‘dribbles’ the ball by swimming around the hoop with it. She ends each session with some of her favorite fresh seafood.”
The Twitter post from the zoo which includes the unbelievable highlight reel leans heavily into a couple of different marine puns (which I am all for), saying:
“Clam dunk! Rescued sea otter (and ottermatic all-star) Juno plays basketball to stay in shape.”
Take a look:
Alright, that’s pretty impressive. I love the slo-motion effects.
I say that someone at the zoo should try to teach nine other otters to play and see them play a little 5 on 5 pick up game. Imagine how much money that could bring in for the Oregon Zoo?
