With all the craziness of the early offseason, including free agency and the draft, the latter stages have seemed endless. As the calendar slowly drags through September, training camp is just over the horizon. But we’re not quite done looking back at the incredible season that was 2014-15. Like they’ve done with similar plays at points this offseason, NBA’s digital media team has released a compilation of the best alley-oops of the past year in pro basketball.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were a good time last year when they weren’t being dissected to their very fibers, as their multiple placements in this highlight demonstrate. We’ve got Iman Shumpert dishing to J.R. Smith, Smith to LeBron James, LeBron to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving to Timofey Mozgov. We’re one Tristan Thompson dunk short of every playmaking Cav from last season appearing on this highlight.
There are, of course, lots of favorites to choose from here, depending on your preferred flavor. DeAndre Jordan had the highest degree of difficulty when he threw it down over the Stifle Tower himself, Rudy Gobert.
But Dirk getting up in the All-Star Game followed by an homage to Vinsanity might mean you get a little misty with nostalgia.
In terms of pure style, the final alley-oop from Stephen Curry to James Harden, also at the All-Star Game, has to win though. A crossover-to-no-look is just absolutely filthy, and frankly, should have been included in this compilation.
