What's New and Now: The Best Viral Sports Videos of the Week
By on February 21, 2012
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Linsanity's got legs.
So much for being a short-attention span fad: A 15 minutes situation this is not. The New York Knicks out-of-nowhere-wunderkind proved he has more in the tank, draining buzzer-beaters and coming up big against the Mavericks Sunday after a little hiccup against the Hornets. Resilience, he has it.
He's also is commanding major video views for his exploits, and as you'd expect, we're overflowing here with Lin-related clips as we prepare to enter the latter stages of February.
But he's not alone. As we get ready for March and its associated madness, exploits on the hardwood—from high school to Division II to the pros—captivated us and took over YouTube.
Here are the ones we just had to watch again.
No he didn't, indeed. If you're a teenager, this is the stuff of legend, the kind of thing that will be talked about long after you've graduated. Remember when Devin obliterated that backboard? Epic.
And it's even better when TV camera's are there to chronicle it. And even better still when that footage makes it to ESPN. And even, even better is the reaction of the dude in the background who peaks his head out the door. It's so good, it's .gif-worthy.
Who says skateboarding is reserved for the likes of Tony Hawk and punk kids at the mall? Well, this 11-year-old girl certainly proves that she's worthy of hanging with the big boys.
Kick-flips, grinds, a bunch of other moves we only see in X-games and Xbox—she's got 'em. Impressive. She may be in Japan now, but Nanaka is definitely poised for a US takeover soon if she keep this up.
Wow. Just, wow. (I used to cover this Division II basketball conference in college, and I never—ever, ever, ever—saw anybody get even half as much air as this dude.)
As gaga as the NBA world, SportsCenter and the like went over Blake Griffin's posterizing of Kendrick Perkinks, this Superman-style fly-over slam is on another level (never mind the argument over whether it was charging or not).
From takeoff to throwdown, it's just simply amazing. It even motivated the uploader of this video to write the longest description in the history of YouTube: "Kwame Alexander SUPERMAN Dunks All Over His Defender!! BEST Dunk Of 2012 College Season?!"
Yes, we realize that we're going high-school heavy here in the roundup, but don't worry; there's plenty of other good highlights that don't involve varsity teams. But then again, how can you hate when the end result is a video like this.
Man, oh man. And you can bet there's no happier group of viewers for this video than Arizona fans, who will get to watch this kid play wearing their colors soon.
Ummmm, yeah. Maybe we should take you back to high school—the clips there are impressive for the right reasons.
It wouldn't be a stretch to guess this resulted in some film-session screaming. (And yes, your eyes are not failing you, this really is the National Basketball Association.)
Yeesh.
People, it's called Google. When you don't know something, all you have to do type a couple words into the most well-known, popular site on the Internet. If you do so, it saves you from situations like the one above here.
Go Jerry! (Sigh.) Even if this is a hoax, we're not laughing. Actually yeah, we are (and shaking our heads a little bit, too).
Let us know if he says "yes."
You'll have to excuse me for not getting excited about this boxing match over the weekend. Maybe it's the UFC fan in me, maybe because I'm still bitterly waiting for Pacquiao-Mayweather like everybody else. But when something like this happens, you have to pay attention.
Not cool. You don't spit. Ever. No excuse, no justification.
Oh, and then you definitely don't do this, either.
And that's why he's facing some serious consequences.
This video may have been uploaded back in the early days of YouTube, but this 1990s vintage slam-sesh was rediscovered by us at B/R last week...and we've been loving it ever since.
What's not to like? Digging the 90s clothing, the big glasses, the spin moves, the little ball. Everything about this video is why YouTube is so awesome. Plus, we can't forget the fact that somebody took the care of transferring this from video tape—remember those days?
You know you've made it when you're the center of an SNL opening. Getting a skit about you anytime in the show proves you're a big name, but the opening is where huge, topical, in-the-now topics get tackled.
Presidents get spoofed in the opening. But this last Saturday, SNL took on Lin (as you can see here). The main point of the bit focused on the Lin-related puns that have permeated the media landscape and the stories of racism surrounding his rise.
And with this shot, Linsanity officially went from fad to full-blown mania. I watched it and watched it and watched it over the last week because A) I thought it was cool, and B) I'm still trying to comprehend the defense that left Lin so wide open to hit his pull-up, affirmation, make-the-media-go-nuts trey.
Plus, this court-side angle is pretty cool.
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