Adam Sandler spent over the weekend on Nantucket the unusual way: he called the Nantucket Police Department’s non-emergency line to ask where he could find a basketball court, then showed up at Backus Lane and played pickup basketball. For island players, that turned a routine run into a celebrity sighting with a paper trail.
Backus Lane on Nantucket
Chris Reynolds directed him to the court off Surfside Road, and the game moved from a phone call to an on-court arrival. Sandler asked, “Hey, I’m here on your island and I like to play basketball. Can you tell me where there’s a basketball court I could play on?”
Andrew Kesler was on the court when Sandler arrived, and his account makes the scene feel as immediate as it was odd: “Adam Sandler rolled in a car and started playing pick ups with the boys.” He added, “He's like ‘guys let me stretch I’m going to hop in’.”
Andrew Kesler on the court
Kesler said Sandler brought “great passing and playmaking,” landed “decent lay-ups,” and “hesitated to shoot the ball.” That reads like a player who wanted in on the run rather than a performer trying to turn a public stop into a show, which is why the call to police stands out more than the basketball itself.
The request also fits the tension in the story: Sandler was on Nantucket and asked police where to play basketball, despite being described as a legendary actor and comedian. Less than 48 hours earlier, he had officiated the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden, so the island pickup game landed as a quick pivot from one high-profile appearance to a much smaller, more local one.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
For Nantucket residents, the practical detail is simple: the court off Backus Lane became the place where Sandler decided to join a game, and the Nantucket Police Department was the route that got him there. The unanswered part is equally simple: the weekend visit explains how he ended up on the island, but not why he was there in the first place.
