When Carl jumped, Bond jumped too.
He loomed in front of Carl like a wall.
In this situation, it looked as if Carl had nowhere left to go and was bound to get blocked.
But he made a wide loop in midair.
Holding the ball with both hands, he traced a huge circle in front of Bond.
Before he drew the circle, his hands were still in front of Bond's face. As he swept them around, he glided forward.
By the time he finished the circle, his hands had slipped past Bond.
Carl's body was still in front of Bond, but his arms reached out from beneath Bond's ribs and came around behind him.
He gave the ball a gentle flick with his fingers.
It spun around the rim four or five times before finally rolling softly into the basket.
That basket from Carl perfectly embodied what it meant to have talent bursting at the seams.
His Behind-the-back Dribble past Danny had been extremely quick and completely unexpected, leaving Danny no chance to defend.
Then he'd pulled the ball in and spun past Bond.
The spin was incredibly fast, and it was clear his Basic Skills were rock solid.
He didn't keep his upper body upright as he spun. Instead, he leaned forward into the turn.
The downside of leaning forward was that it made it easy to lose balance and fall.
But with rock-solid fundamentals, his footwork could keep up.
With enough practice, he could learn to avoid falling.
The advantage was that after completing the turn, he could instantly create distance from his defender at top speed.
Because after leaning forward through the turn, he was already in a sprinting posture.
Finally, there was the wide loop in front of Bond.
During that move, Carl had already stretched