I had to watch this a few times to completely understand exactly what happened, but once I figured it all out, it dawned on me that this is one of the most insane sequences that you’ll ever see on a basketball court. It came to us from Thursday night’s game between the Iowa Energy and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League.
Let’s break this down:
- The play begins on an Energy fast break. It is led by former Kentucky guard Andrew Harrison, who decides that the only way he can complete a pass to one of his teammates is to go behind the back. He throws a perfect behind the back bounce pass to…
- Ramon Harris, who gathered the ball and, as he was doing this, saw that D.J. Stephens was streaking down the center of the court with no one around him. So Harris takes one step, throws the ball up in the air backwards, and sets up a perfect lob for…
- Stephens, who damn near jumps out of the building (seriously, it looks like his eyes are at the rim) and throws down a violent jam. The Mad Ants defenders in the area just kind of stand there, either completely shocked that they just witnessed a man fly or demoralized because they just got dunked on. Or both.
The announcer goes on to proclaim that this was the “play of the year,” and while it’s usually hyperbolic when someone makes that claim, he has a case on this one. At the very least, this should end up being one of the rare D-League highlights that’s more impressive than an NBA highlight.