He hit his forehead on the backboard. Not the top of his head, but his forehead. Here’s another play where he had to twist his head to avoid hitting the rim. Talk about ups. And this guy is a 6’3″ point guard!
6 thoughts on “Ja Morant may have made the greatest defensive play in basketball history”
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Oops. The video of LBJ’s block: https://youtu.be/-zd62MxKXp8
LeBron’s block was far more important, of course. But Ja’s was more impressive – leaping off both feet and actually catching the ball with both hands while more than 11 feet in the air, timing the catch so that the ball was still traveling upward, then recovering the ball himself to take control of the flow – seemingly with no effort – after he and it collided with the backboard. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Ja combined the most impressive elements of LeBron’s play with the most impressive elements of this famous Jordan move:
Plus Ja is a dwarf by NBA standards, while LeBron is 6’9″.
Lebron James did the same thing against Golden State in 2016. In the 7th game of the NBA Finals. In the final two minutes. Chased down the ball from farther away than Morant.
That play is as improbable as a jet liner crashing on the 14th Street Bridge here (DC) – which in fact happened 40 years ago today.
Ja live!
6’3”
He looked like Superman, flying like that.