This High School Basketball Coach Got Too Into The Game Trying To Defend An Inbounds Pass

Across the country, high school basketball teams are competing in state tournaments and, most of the time, games don’t exactly make national news. Sure, there is plenty of local interest and passion at the high school level but, short of nationally ranked teams and five-star recruits, most casual sports fans aren’t taking deep dives into what transpires in areas like the Georgia Class 3A tournament.

On Wednesday, though, the head coach of Johnson High School in Savannah drew quite a bit of interest on the heels of the bold choice to essentially defend an inbounds pass from the coaching box.

The video is highly amusing in many ways, especially because the youngster from Greater Atlanta Christian School that was trying to pass the ball displayed real confusion on his face at the actions of the opposing coach. A quick gander at the Google machine indicates that Johnson is coached by Utaff Gordon and, presumably, he made this calculated choice in an effort to provide his team with an improved chance at victory. In the end, that proved to be a fruitless effort, as Johnson fell to GAC by a final score of 75-61 and ended its season with this as a lasting image.

While this might spark some sort of ethics debate as to whether Gordon’s actions were actually legal since he was out of bounds, it is unquestionably absurd that he chose to do this and, on cue, it happened to be caught on video in a way that could be easily shared. We’ve seen plenty of instances of coaches getting in the way by leaving their assigned boxes and there are always stories about coaches (and players) shouting crazy things from the sideline in an attempt to bother the opposition. Still, it feels new to have a head coach actively trying to deter a passing lane with outstretched arms and this video doesn’t get any less wild on the tenth viewing.