Good afternoon, basketball fans, and welcome to another edition of The Best Plays You’ve Never Seen Before! In this post you will find awesome highlights with only a few Youtube views, including a spectacular, game-tying tip jam by the high-flying Desmond Mason, as well as an additional jam by another former Supersonic most known for getting fat and having kids. The digging has been done for you… all you’ve got to do is scroll down and press play!
First up is actually a top 10, but the play that I’m singling out is the putback smash by Drew Gooden at number two (2:05). It’s extra awesome because he dunks it over his own teammate (Juwan Howard, who gets knocked off balance), and I think it was much cooler than the Kobe game-winner at number one.
Moving right along with one of the aforementioned Supersonics, watch as a prime Shawn Kemp takes off from damn near the free-throw line, instilling fear in the heart of a Greek Olympian (honestly, Mr. Greek dude… I don’t blame you, buddy). This video actually has 100-something-thousand plays, but I’m slipping it in here because it happened in a non-NBA game.
For the featured play, here’s Desmond Mason sending a mid-March game between a couple of playoff teams to overtime with a flying tip in. The Sonics went on to beat the Hornets, which is interesting because they finished with exactly one more victory than Charlotte did that season. Skip to the one minute mark for the actual play, but don’t skip anything if you want to see Jamaal Magloire get tossed by Vladimir Radmanovic.
Next up is probably the non-defensive highlight of Theo Ratliff’s career—a monster slam dunk over Dikembe Mutombo set up by a terrific dish from Allen Iverson. This must’ve been an exciting moment for Theo… not often has he ever appeared on the fun side of a poster.
To finish things off, here’s Grant Hill spinning into the lane and throwing down a devastating two-handed hammer on top of Mark Davis. According to the video’s description, Hill finished with 22 points and hit the game-winning free throws. This dude Mark Davis probably should’ve fouled him too.
***Note: As I searched for videos to use in this post, I think I just may have discovered the most unexciting highlight mix in the history of pro basketball. It features Bobby Simmons in his Clipper days, and, not surprisingly, it only lasts 2 minutes and 17 seconds (and that’s with quite a bit of filler, including a clip of Simmons intercepting a pass). There are only two real “highlights” in the mix, and even those are just routine dunks. I’ve always said that it’s possible to make any player look good in a Youtube mix, but I might have to rethink my theory having seen this inexplicably-unnecessary Bobby Simmons compilation.
Yo you wathcing the summer league this year? I’m hooked on it. I hope Adam Morrison gets signed the Nets and Reggie Hamilton gets signed by the Pacers. Their my two favorite players in the summer league this year, but I’m rooting for a bunch of other players too.
I have to work quite a bit in the summer, but I always watch Summer League when I get the chance. I watched the Pacers play the Sixers last night. Lance Stephenson had a good game.