LaMelo Ball thought this dunk was a sure thing.
But something bizarre happened.
As he went up for the dunk, somehow, against all reason, the ball slammed into the front of the rim.
And bounced back out again.
Big Locke grabbed the rebound.
Then he tossed it to Crazy Tiger Tiger.
All five Lakers had just crossed inside the three-point line, while the Raptors hadn't followed them in right away. So when Tagore got the ball, there was no one in front of him to defend. He easily dribbled to the basket and threw down a dunk.
But the camera didn't show Tagore after the score. Instead, it went straight to LaMelo Ball.
He stared at his right hand in disbelief.
What the hell was that? What the hell had just happened?
It was like seeing a ghost. It really was.
When his older brothers had failed to finish their dunks just now, he'd secretly laughed at them for missing even those. But when it was his turn, he finally understood how terrifying it felt.
At the instant he went up to dunk, the hoop before his eyes had seemed to stop being a hoop and become a bottomless abyss.
It was as if he weren't leaping up to dunk at all, but throwing himself into a bottomless abyss.
The sensation had made him shudder. It had terrified him.
For a split second, he'd lost focus. That was why he hadn't slammed the ball through the hoop and had instead hit the front of the rim in that awkward miss.
Even now, the feeling still haunted him. It had been terrifying.
On the sidelines, Ball Dad had stood up again when he saw LaMelo Ball getting ready to dunk.
His hands had clenched into fists without him realizing it, held