"Kobe Bryant catches the ball to Shaq!"
Kobe Bryant changed direction to break through Scotty Pippen and threw the ball into the sky, high above Brian Grant's fingertips. Shaquille O'Neal jumped high to catch the ball and completed a powerful one-handed dunk.
Staples Center fried. The fans were ecstatic and full of noise.
The next scene was repeated for the next two decades: O'Neill's eyes were wide open, his mouth was wide open, his index fingers were pointing to the sky, and the wind was running to the bench.
O'Neill has had countless classic moments in his 19-year career. To this day, he still chooses the air relay with Kobe Bryant at the crucial moment of the seventh game of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers as his best moment in the webcast.
"The best basketball memories, the answer will be the aerial relay that G7 and Kobe Bryant completed. If we hadn't won that game, then Kobe Bryant and I wouldn't have won 3 championships together. O'Neill said.
It was one of the wildest turning points in NBA history, a hit that forever linked Kobe and O'Neal and kicked off a "triple-title" dynasty.
Former Lakers player Rick Fox recalled: "That empty pick-up allowed us to achieve Phoenix Nirvana. Kobe Bryant passes the ball to the 'Sharks'?! They finished the air relay?! ”
However, that empty receiver was definitely not the most brilliant pass. The ball was passed too high and a little to the right. The ball was purely a pemposy, and Bryant glanced at O'Neal, and the two of them understood.
So, how to create the perfect air relay?
For some players, it only takes a look to complete an air connection. For other players, a nod is required. Others require a subtle moment. The beginning of every great aerial relay begins with a conundrum: How does a player let his teammates know that a basketball will fly in the air near the basket without being noticed by the defender?
Shaquille O'Neill has a code. The word is a dessert: Ice cream.
"'Ice cream' is when you're a defender and you go around defending me, then I'll shout 'ice cream' with my teammates. This means that when you're close to the rebound, throw the ball wherever you want. O'Neill said. The implication is that you throw it and I can dunk the ball into the basket.
From start to finish, the best air connection is barely a second. But the most exciting fit in basketball is far more complex than simple high-hanging balls and dunks, and it requires trust built between teammates over the years, including some nonverbal moves, deliberately bad passes and bold finishing styles.
Philadelphia 76ers center Dwight Howard also had the secret to a word.
"Pineapple". That's right, the "pineapple" of the tropical fruit. Howard completed 984 air-to-air connections in his career, and for most of his career he relied on a series of nonverbal eye contact. He developed a rapport with Hiddo Turkgru and Jamal Nelson with the Orlando Magic, which helped him sprint quickly and jump to the basket. But he didn't have as much time to build those eye-to-eye rapports with his teammates on the 76ers, the sixth team he's playing for the last nine seasons, so he uses fruit names to help.
"I'll just shout pineapple!" pineapple! Howard said, "And then frantically shake off the defense." ”
But not everyone is so cunning. Jazz teammates have teased center Rudy Gobert because he would point strangely into the air and feel like he had a chance to catch up.
His Utah Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell has given Gobert 65 empty catches over the past four years. Through training and watching the video, he already had a feeling about when Gobert, who was 2 meters 16, should be able to complete the air connection. Now Gobert can abandon the strategy of pointing into the air and trust Mitchell's passing feeling.
Few people are better at stealthy passing than Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. According to Second Spectrum, he is second only to Draymond Green in the efficiency list for air assist opportunities.
James said: "As a passer, I always keep an eye on the opponent's second line of defence when attacking at half-time. Usually there will be defenders at the bottom line, or someone will come over to help prevent this air connection. I want my pass to put my attacking player in a situation where he can score as long as he jumps. ”
If there's anyone whose air relay prowess can compete with James's, it's his old friend, Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul. Since the NBA began tracking the number of air connections in 1996, Paul has ranked second in NBA history in terms of number of air connection assists. For how to set up a delicate and complex air connection, Paul can open a class and give a lecture.
"Cover, the right angle, you have to get the shooter in the flank position," Paul explained. "It's all about setting the angle of cover, reading the position of the low defender..."
But Paul stopped again.
"To be honest with you, I'll probably make it sound a little easier than it really is."
James Harden is the player who has delivered the most air-picked assists in the league over the past five seasons, delivering 475 free-receiver assists, more than twice as many as second-placed Trae Young (235) and third-place Russell Westbrook (233).
Part of the reason Harden's air-to-air pass is so unstoppable is because he looks like he's thrown. He perfected it with his former teammate "Cake King" Clint Capela on the Rockets, and he's honing that with his new nets, Jordan Jr., Claxton.
In the eyes of gobert, the two-time defensive player of the year, Harden's passing ability in offense makes him almost unstoppable. Gobert said it's easier to keep a guard against this guy when you know this guy isn't a good passer or he can't find a good angle to pass. But Harden can do it, as long as I come over to help, he can make an empty connection over his head, and Capela is always in the right place.
Now the New Orleans Pelicans' Lonzo Ball and Zion Williamson are the new forces in the entire NBA airtighted duo, and they may also be one of the best air-connecting combinations out there.
On March 2, less than two minutes into the jazz's second-half game against the Pelicans, Mike Conley scored a three-pointer in the bottom corner. Before the 66-63 score could turn into 69-63, Bauer immediately observed a black shadow with a height of 1 meter 98 and a weight of 129 kilograms running wildly. A long pass across halfway went straight to him, and behind him were three Jazz defenders who knew what was going to happen but were powerless to stop it. Williamson jumped high to complete the two-handed empty connection.
The air configuration of "Ball Brother" and "Fat Tiger" is so fast that even the camera can't capture it. In the face of these two talented young people, the narrator often only had time to say: "Zion! ”
Such a fit often takes months or even years to polish, and it takes time to produce a chemical reaction. In 2019, when Williamson and Ball played their first makeshift game in the Pelicans' training gym, the chemistry between them began. Over the next few seasons, the duo became one of the most destructive and explosive on the basketball court.
Williamson's idea was, before I say something, let me see if Ball would pass the ball out of the air or give me a pass that crossed the field.
Ball, of course, was not polite either, he said, and that was what I did at the time. Every time he tapped on the field, he succeeded every time.
"To be honest, if I see an opportunity like that in the game, I'll pass it out and hopefully have the best result," Bauer said.
Ball's younger brother Ramello Ball, the strongest contender for the rookie of the season, has also contributed a lot of great air connections, but he also said that his passes are as inaccurate as his brother's. According to him, the hope that everything is okay may be inherited from our family.
"I just pass the ball out and I leave the rest to God, the truth." Ramello Bauer said.
Despite the pass, I can get your ball. That's what Lonzo Bauer wanted to hear.
"Once you have trust in someone you know can catch a pass, you can throw the ball almost anywhere." Bauer said.