Issue 119: Halftime Entertainment Gone Horribly Wrong

As you may know, basketball games have several stoppages in play. Between quarters, halves, timeouts, injuries, replay reviews, and other delays, there are plenty of opportunities for non-game action to take place.

And boy howdy, some spectacularly wild moments have happened during those stoppages. Thankfully, we have people who were paying attention and recording what was going on, rather than, say, relieving themselves or hitting up the concession stand.

I’ll preface these entries by saying I’m not sure when exactly during the game they happened. It’s very likely they were during a timeout or in between quarters, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll call ‘em halftime entertainment.

Tic-Tac-Toe-no!

Even if you consider yourself “not a gamer,” you’ve surely played Tic-Tac-Toe before. In fact, I’d argue it’s among the easiest games to learn — perhaps the easiest.

Sure, there are variants of Tic-Tac-Toe like Connect Four, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, and Hollywood Squares, but those are all more complicated (and sometimes involve way too much small talk).

The core of Tic-Tac-Toe is simple: get three Xs or Os before your opponent gets three. But as the Portland Trail Blazers found out, sometimes a simple concept is difficult in execution.

During a break in the action, the Blazers hosted a Tic-Tac-Toe competition. They plucked two women from the crowd and had them compete to win a prize. The women each shot at one of the baskets; upon making a layup, they’d run to center court and put either an X or O down on a big Tic-Tac-Toe board.

Seems easy enough, but…well, it wasn’t. Ohhhh, Grace!

Can you dunk yourself?

Many of us will never know the joy of delivering a rim-rocking slam dunk on a regulation hoop. Luckily, we’ve got things like backyard pool rims and Fisher-Price baskets to give us some sense of satisfaction.

No matter the basket, anytime I have dunked a basketball, not once have I thought “hmm, I wonder if I could dunk myself, too.” However, I’m sure some people have considered it.

On January 26, 2011, Phoenix Suns Gorilla Verve Sol Patrol member Nick Corrales put to rest any lingering doubts about whether dunking yourself is possible. During a timeout in the third quarter, the Phoenix Suns Gorilla and a bunch of athletic jumpers performed trampoline dunks.

This is a common scene at a basketball game, though you rarely get to see both a ball and a player go through the hoop. Yet that’s exactly what Nick did, as he overshot the runway a bit on his approach.

The clip is queued up below and it is both exhilarating and a bit scary all at once. But Nick was a good sport about things and even did an interview explaining how everything went down.

If ever there were a “don’t try this at home” moment, this would be it.

The worst half-court shot ever

Anytime I see a title of “worst X ever,” I always approach it with some skepticism. After all, the Comic Book Guy has made us all critics and we love crapping on things.

There truly can only be one worst half-court shot ever though, and this attempt may actually live up to the title.

It comes to us courtesy of a Cairns Taipans game in Australia. One lucky fan named Sally had the chance to score a cool quarter of a million dollars if she knocked in a half-court shot.

During these clips, we usually see a decent enough lead-up to the shot — it’s just the actual jumper or hoist that falls short. But Sally starts discombobulating as soon as she begins to dribble.

She very nearly bounces the ball entirely over her head and never fully recovers. This clip is only 20 seconds but it’s provided me joy for far longer.

The best seven seconds of your day

This has nothing to do with halftime entertainment, but since my pal Ryan shared this video with me last Friday, I have watched it at least 65 times and it cracks me up so much every time.

Hope your Monday is as cool as this guy.

That’s all ’til next time. Thanks for reading!

Joey

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