The majority of NBA players have been playing the sport since middle school, if not earlier. By now, every action and motion on the court is a rote skill, one executed without hesitation and without thinking. In this way, they are like machines. Yet even the finest-tuned machines can sputter every now and again, even for no reason at all.
This goes a long way in explaining what Jared Dudley just did with the basketball, which is not shoot it at the basket, as he’s done thousands upon thousands of times before, but rather away from it. Perhaps Dudley forgot the objective of basketball, perhaps the ball simply slipped out of his fingers – it really doesn’t matter. It’s best, in moments like these, not to think of the why, and just enjoy that it happened at all.
