The Loop

A young Los Angeles Lakers fan puts on a shooting clinic (is already better than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope)

November 20, 2019
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Have you ever had a chance to shoot a basketball on a professional court? It's impossible. The lights are glaring in all of the wrong ways and the dimensions behind the hoop are off due to the rows of seats curling upwards in the corner of your vision. Nevertheless, this didn't stop Maxx from turning into an amalgamation of every great NBA shooter for 30 pivotal seconds at Staples Center.

Yes, the form is suspect, but cynics said the same thing about Michael Redd, Kevin Martin and Eric Gordon. The method of attempting to get the ball into the basket doesn't matter if you shoot with the accuracy of Steph Curry.

We should also mention that Maxx, who was most likely drug-tested after leaving the court, had the audacity to go for the three-pointer straightaway. That's ballsy as hell. If the basketball takes a weird bounce, you're then immediately hustling to catch up. Six seconds into his half-minute, Maxx had already clinched the contest. The rest of his made baskets were for the fans and the history books.

Perhaps the best part of the clip—other than witnessing a star being born—is the Los Angeles Lakers bench slowly turning their heads and becoming engrossed. Frank Vogel could've been diagramming the play of the century, but it wouldn't have mattered to the team.

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By the end of the 30 seconds, Maxx had a zealot in JaVale McGee, raising his hand in jubilation and then walking over to get a high-five from the hot-shooter himself. Whether this was a "Space Jam monstars stealing basketball players talent" scenario is yet to be seen. If JaVale improves, we'll know for sure that it worked.

Maxx may have missed his final shot, but I'm counting that as after the buzzer, which means he went 8-for-8 from the floor including two three-pointers in less than a minute of game-time. This also means he had a +30 plus-minus.

LeBron James, eat your heart out.