Seeing green: Collin Gillespie’s game-winner meant more than an improbable win

When on the brink of an inconceivable come-from-behind win, a player’s mind isn’t thinking about anything but execution.

But once Collin Gillespie’s fadeaway jumper went through the hoop to put the Suns up 114-113 over the Timberwolves with 6.4 seconds remaining on Friday night, and a proceeding stop of Julius Randle from 3, he had a moment to process the significance of what just happened.

And a win was not the only thing on the young guard’s mind.

“It’s a (NBA Emirates Cup) game, so money on the line,” Gillespie told reporters postgame.

“There’s no quit. Continue to fight until there is no time left.”

Collin Gillespie as Suns closed on 9-0 run to stun Minnesota, 114-113 as he hit game winner with 6.4 seconds left.

“It’s a (NBA Cup) game. Money on the line.”

On final shot: “I didn’t want to try and settle, but… pic.twitter.com/YywN0e2xMl

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 22, 2025

Phoenix moved to 2-0 in Western Conference Group A play, having already defeated the Utah Jazz on Halloween, and kept pace with the Oklahoma City Thunder, which has wins over the Jazz and Sacramento Kings.

Financial incentives begin with NBA teams that get out of group play into the quarterfinals, and each rostered player will earn $53,093, according to Front Office Sports. This is an increase of more than $1,500 from last season.

The bonus money grows from there with each knock-out win, with $106,187 for making the semifinals, $212,373 for being the runners-up and $530,933 for the NBA Cup champion. The champion’s payout is up more than $30,000 from the inaugural year’s $500,000 in 2023.

In order to keep those green dreams alive for Gillespie, the Suns will need to finish 3-1 to have a shot at one of two Wild Card spots of the top non-group winners across the league. A perfect 4-0 record and automatic quarterfinals bid via a Group A win would come with victories over the Kings (Wednesday) and 16-1 Thunder (Friday).

Devin Booker, who fouled out with 3:23 left in the game, said postgame that he’s “gonna have to watch it back to break down everything that happened that quick” and Gillespie, in the midst of it all, even had a hard time keeping up.

“I think Royce (O’Neale) got a steal, I don’t even know how it happened,” Gillespie said. “It happened really quick but no quit, just continued to fight. It was a really good win for us.”

From a two-way player last season to a full-fledged Sun this year, the undrafted Villanova product has had to elevate his game majorly with the absence of Jalen Green.

Gillespie has posted 20 and 19-point efforts his last two times out, including four made 3s in each game.

He has a +6 plus-minus through 16 games, which is the second-best by a Phoenix player who has appeared in at least 10 games — Isaiah Livers at +6.3. The guard led the Suns with a +14 plus-minus tally in his 34 minutes against the T-Wolves.

As for the game-winning play, which Jordan Goodwin said was designed for Gillespie, the guard wasn’t surprised the ball was put in his hands.

“I wasn’t really shocked because Dillon (Brooks) fouled out and Book had fouled out already,” Gillespie said.

“Everybody had faith in it.”

Suns’ Jordan Goodwin said the game-winning play vs. the T-Wolves was designed for Collin Gillespie. pic.twitter.com/VxXBZuKf0h

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) November 22, 2025

“I told Ryan (Dunn) before we came out of the huddle, I said, ‘Make sure you go to the offensive glass,’ because I was going to try to get (the ball) on the rim,” Gillespie said. “I didn’t want to try and settle, but (Rudy) Gobert was down there. So I had to take kind of a little floater midrange.”

Settling for a midrange certainly handled the job.

Settling for a participation trophy in the NBA Cup? Not if you’re seeing green in the future.

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