Shaq gets up and excited about incredibly calm midcourt game-winner in Florida
Let’s face it: Shaquille O’Neal is one big fellow. Now that he spends his days as a basketball analyst rather than a basketball athlete, he’s a little less agile than he used to be as well. Put those two factors together, and suffice it to say that it takes a lot to get Shaq Daddy up out of his seat once he initially sits down.
Well, now we know what hits that threshold: The game-winner you see above, as scored by Decatur (Ga.) Shiloh High, from nigh on half court.
As captured by Home Team Hoops, Shiloh guard Nate Mason Jr. drilled the game-winning three-pointer you see above to edge past Baltimore (Md.) St. Francis Academy, 55-54, at the 2013 Montverde Academy Invitational in Florida. Shaq was in attendance because Montverde is relatively close to his homebase at Isleworth outside Orlando.
The legendary big man got to see quite a game, with St. Francis taking a 54-52 lead with fewer than five seconds remaining in the game. Shiloh just had time to get the ball to Mason Jr,, who turned upcourt, raced to mid-court and then pulled off the near unimaginable teen feat of launching into a completely normal looking jump shot that sailed straight in from behind the midcourt line.
Seriously, watch that shot again. It’s as if Mason Jr. was pulling up from 15 feet. That may be the calmest midcourt game-winner anyone will ever see.
It went through as if it was taken from 15 feet, too, sending Shaq into histrionics in his apparent shock at the bucket.
The victory served as an impressive salve for Shiloh, which fell to host and rising national power Montverde a day earlier. Fortunately, something tells us that Mason Jr. and his teammates will remember his game-winner much more clearly than the team’s 61-53 loss to Montverde in the years ahead.
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