LeBron James threw down a stunning windmill dunk on a one-man fastbreak against the Suns on Tuesday night in Phoenix. It was one of the few highlights of a breezy 129-107 Cavs win against the Western Conference bottom-feeder during which LeBron logged his 14th triple-double of the season.
There’s no question it was a highlight-reel worthy slam, but there’s another reason why it’s been getting so much play the past 24 hours. A certain subset of clairvoyant fans felt something alarmingly familiar about that dunk, triggering a strong sense of deja vu. And as it turns out, their intuition was correct.
Some digging into the archives from those on Twitter revealed that LeBron threw down an eerily similar version of that same jam four years earlier when he was still a member of the Miami Heat. Take a look and see for yourself.
four years later lebron brings the windmill back around. pic.twitter.com/kpmfsM6JI7
— alex medina (@mrmedina) March 14, 2018
When examined side by side, the plays are nearly identical, from the trailing defender, to the angle of approach, to the takeoff point, to the way he jogs back down the court.
All season long, we’ve been documenting seemingly random moments of synchronization around the league, which is offering mounting evidence that our alien overlords have us enslaved in a holographic projection of reality, a la The Matrix. And it wasn’t even the first time the Suns have been at the center of this conspiracy.
It’s also lending credence to LeBron’s contention that he’s aging like a “fine wine,” as he told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Regardless, we’d love to see him try and replicate his most iconic dunks against each team he visits throughout the season. This was a good enough place to start.
