About the NBA's greatest dunk that never counted. Plus, LeBron James' Michael Jordan story

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The best way to start your day is with this newsletter and Sam Amick telling you what hes hearing on ye olde trade front .

It didnt count, but Ja still baptized Wemby If I may paraphrase and slightly alter the words of the late, great Biggie Smalls, I live for the dunk; Ill die for the dunk.

Im doing so because life sometimes gives us a dunk so great, we dont even care whether it counts.

Thats what happened last night during the Grizzlies 129-115 victory over the Spurs .

Advertisement With a little over two minutes left in the game, Ja Morant drove down the left side of the floor.

He was fouled around the 3-point line by Stephon Castle but kept driving because he didnt hear the whistle.

All Morant saw was Victor Wembanyama under the basket, and he wanted to dunk on him again.

Remember when he did it during his brief, nine-game stint last season? Well, he kept going ...

and Wemby challenged him.

It resulted in this dead-ball poster.

Ja Morant just threw down a CRAZY dunk after the whistle pic.twitter.com/fpQnist4AJ NBA (@NBA) January 16, 2025 Ay dios mio! Thats a lot of dunk! And when something this vicious happens at the rim, it should count no matter what .

Wemby had 13 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks in the game, but those stats didnt matter.

We thought it was a big moment when Zach Edey dunked on him early in the game .

Morants finish was so fun that nobody cared that it didnt count.

But it counted to us.

More on last nights action: Knicks 125 (27-15), 76ers 119 (15-24), OT: There was no Karl-Anthony Towns or Joel Embiid , but this was still fun.

The Sixers came roaring back in the second half to force overtime, but Jalen Brunson (38 points) and Josh Hart (10 points, 12 assists, 17 rebounds and four steals) were too much for Philly.

And KAT apparently changed outfits at halftime because of sweat stains ? Raptors 110 (10-31), Celtics 97 (28-12): WUT?? Boston was fully healthy and scored just 15 points in the fourth quarter against Toronto.

Maybe its actually time to worry about the Celtics? Hawks 110 (21-19), Bulls 94 (18-23): Atlanta was without Trae Young , Jalen Johnson and Dominique Wilkins, but Keaton Wallace (27 points, six rebounds, six assists, four steals) led the Hawks over a Bulls team that shot 6 of 27 from deep and turned it over 20 times.

Advertisement Bucks 122 (22-17), Magic 93 (23-19): Milwaukee shot 62.5 percent from the field and put this one away by halftime.

Giannis Antetokounmpo finished 26 points and 11 rebounds while Damian Lillard dropped an easy 30.

The Bucks moved past Orlando for fourth in the East.

Hornets 117 (9-28), Jazz 112 (10-29): Utah had no answer for Mark Williams (31 points, 13 rebounds), and LaMelo Ball helped lead a big fourth quarter to bury the Jazz.

Clippers 126 (22-17), Nets 67 (14-27): Kawhi Leonard had 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 24 minutes as the Clippers led by as many as 64 points in this one .

In an effort to avoid embarrassment, the Nets did cut their deficit to 59 by the final buzzer, but this is still the worst loss in franchise history.

Postponements make the NBA readjust Schedule reshuffle.

The NBA had to reschedule nine games in order to make up for lost nights.

Take a look at what changed .

Suns trade.

Phoenix acquired 27-year-old center Nick Richards from the Hornets.

These are the details .

Jersey for sale.

A kid received a jersey from Wemby after a game, and its already up for auction.

Here is Wembys reaction .

Player of the year? Cooper Flagg (18 years old until Dec.

21) might run away with this seasons College Player of the Year award.

Who can catch him ? Dont miss this game tonight.

Cavaliers (34-5) at Thunder (33-6), 7:30 p.m.

ET on TNT.

This is a rematch of the best game of the season.

None of you believe OKC has a viable threat We polled the Bouncers (you ) in yesterdays edition to see if you believed in any West team to beat the Thunder.

OKC has been the best team in the conference all season but doesnt have an obvious challenger right now.

So, we went through each of the other 11 teams vying for some postseason glory (or at least an appearance for some revenue), and it turns out you dont believe in any of them.

Lets go squad by squad: We also asked about teams not in the current top six in the West.

Were talking about the likes of the Wolves, Kings , Spurs, Warriors and Suns.

Of those teams, who has the best chance of beating OKC? Also, every time we run a poll here and leave a write-in option for blank/other, one of you always seems to write in Thanasis Antetokounmpo as an answer.

It doesnt matter the subject.

It doesnt matter the context.

And you did it again.

I will find you.

One day, I will find you.

You are my sworn enemy.

Thank you to literally everybody else who voted.

Not you, though, Thanasis scribe.

Advertisement More from these West teams last night: Rockets 128 (27-12), Nuggets 108 (24-16): Speaking of the Rockets: they smacked the Nuggets around last night.

Jokic didnt play, and Jalen Green led Houston with 34 points.

Alperen Sengun had 20-9-8 as the Rockets had their fourth-best shooting game of the season.

Warriors 116 (20-20), Wolves 115 (21-19): The Wolves were down 24 points in the first quarter and never led in this game.

But they did fight back to tie it a couple of times in the final frame.

That was before Steph Curry kept happening as he closed out Minnesota with 31 points, eight assists and 7-of-12 shooting from deep.

Lakers 117 (21-17), Heat 108 (20-19): Miami was rolling in this one before the Lakers outscored it 63-42 in the second half.

Rui Hachimura led LA with 23 points, Anthony Davis and LeBron James each had 22 and Austin Reaves chipped in 14 points and 14 dimes.

Pelicans 119 (10-32), Mavericks 116 (22-19): Dejounte Murray s 30 points were enough to outlast a Mavs team without Doncic and Kyrie Irving .

Zion Williamson was out with return to competition reconditioning.

Seriously.

LeBron was unguardable against MJ at 16 We never got to see LeBron James face off against Michael Jordan.

By the time LeBron entered the league in the 2003-04 season, MJ had retired for a third and final (we think?) time.

The 2002-03 season was the final campaign for MJ.

That doesnt mean they didnt play basketball against each other, though.

LeBron went on the Kelce brothers podcast this week to tell the story of when he was 16 years old and finally got on the court in the hallowed MJ pickup runs.

LeBron was on the court with Jordan, Anfernee Hardaway, Ron Artest, Antoine Walker, Michael Finley and others.

When telling the story, he reminded people that they never let young guys play, but he was patient and eventually got on the court.

So, who guarded LeBron? I was unguardable I would give anything to watch a 16 year old Lebron playing pickup with Michael Jordan pic.twitter.com/K4Xe4BdBwM New Heights (@newheightshow) January 15, 2025 Nobody.

I was unguardable.

LeBron said he took full advantage of his opportunity to impress in that rare opportunity.

When I finally got out there, I was busting a, man.

I was nervous, I was nervous as hell being out there with MJ and the rest of those guys.

But I was like, Im about to go crazy.

And I did.

Advertisement This is a fun story, and, even though we dont have footage, its fun to imagine what happened on the court that day in Chicago.

But also ...

how do I put this delicately ...

the internet has found plenty of moments in which LeBron has embellished the truth.

It would be nice to have a second source on this.

As Mark Puleo reminded us here , there is some good eyewitness testimony to corroborate this LeBron tale.

Ron Artest was recently on Paul George s podcast and remembered this game.

He was cooking.

He was posting, getting to the basket, and I was like, This is going to be a huge issue.

And nobody has footage of this? No video cameras? An artist rendering from a courtroom illustrator? Nothing?! Love The Bounce? Check out The Athletics other newsletters .

(Top photo: Michael Gonzales / Getty Images ).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.