A viral marriage proposal at a Sixers game brought out the haters. The couple behind it isn’t feeding the trolls.

The Sixers may have taken home a win against the Los Angeles Clippers last week, but one of their dancers took home a new fiancé.

Dance team captain Jackie Murtha got the surprise of a lifetime during a timeout in the Sixers’ win Friday. Murtha’s future husband, Chris Girard, popped the question in front of the Wells Fargo Center crowd after stepping out of an inflatable costume. Franklin, the Sixers’ mascot, helped out by revealing a wrapping papered sign that read “Will you marry me?”

Murtha said yes, and the Jersey City-based couple shared a kiss to celebrate.

“When they ripped the wrapping paper off the sign ... I thought it was for somebody else,” Murtha, 27, told The Inquirer. “Obviously, from all the pictures and videos, I was crying like a baby. I was just so happy.”

Ditto for Girard, 27, who spent several months planning the moment. The Christmas game, he said, is Murtha’s favorite of the year, so he wanted to make this one even more memorable. And the added holiday spectacle helped him get the couple’s parents, siblings, and friends — a group of about 40 in total — into the arena without rousing Murtha’s suspicions.

“Her family going makes sense. That’s an easy one,” said Girard, who hails from Massachusetts. “But if she saw my brother, she would have been like, ‘Well, this is fishy.’”

Murtha was taken completely by surprise. In fact, she didn’t even know Girard had bought an engagement ring.

“I genuinely wasn’t expecting anything at all,” Murtha said. “He really did a good job of keeping it secret, so when I was out there on the court, it was just a regular promo. I was just doing my job.”

Photos and video of the engagement quickly went viral with coverage everywhere from ESPN to TMZ. On social media, some of the responses weren’t so kind, with some commenters suggesting that Murtha was out of Girard’s league. But that wasn’t surprising to the couple, who have been together for about eight years, and they took the negative comments in stride.

“It’s not like we never heard that before,” Murtha said. “I’ve always said I don’t get it. And truly, I don’t. I don’t see it. But we’ve gotten that joke for almost the past eight years of our relationship, so it wasn’t surprising.”

Murtha and Girard met as students at the University of the Arts in 2015, but Girard left after one semester to attend the University of Massachusetts. The pair dated long distance for six years before moving in together.

“That did make some of the comments funny. They were like, ‘She’s with bro for his money,” Girard said. “We met in college. I can assure you there was no money.”

Girard clapped back at the haters in a series of tweets that went viral themselves. In one, he simply agreed with the commenters, adding that he is “just happy to be here.” In another, he wrote that “Pete Davidson walked so I could run,” referring to the famed comedian’s habit of dating super models and celebrities like Kim Kardashian that fans deem to be too attractive for him.

Those tweets were spur of the moment for Girard, who didn’t find out about the viral response until the game’s third quarter. His brother, who was sitting in another part of the Wells Fargo Center, sent him a tweet from ESPN where some comments roasting him appeared. Girard, a senior research analyst for distribution and marketplace insights at Disney, decided to get out in front of it with humor.

“I saw how much [attention] it had already, and I like to think I’m pretty funny. Jackie thinks I’m funny. My mom thinks I’m funny,” Girard said. So, he sent his first tweet, and set his phone down to enjoy the game.

Girard’s nonchalant responses, for the most part, won over the online mob, and he became something of an internet hero, at least for the night. Getting into the weeds and clapping back at each person, he said, would have gone badly. Not feeding the trolls, on the other hand? That was the play.

Especially because for the couple, it’s not about leagues.

“I don’t care. She doesn’t think she’s out of my league. We’re just perfect for each other,” Girard said. “We make each other happy, and that’s all that matters. If people are mad, I kind of feel bad for them.”

But if anyone was upset, it was Girard’s mother and grandmother.

“They’re like, ‘Well, I think you’re very handsome,’” Girard said.