LeBron James hits Kevin Durant with three-quarter-court bounce pass for slam dunk (VIDEO)
It's not even a quarter of 10 on Sunday morning on the East Coast, you've barely gotten your first coffee down and Team USA is less than four minutes into its opening game of group play against France at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London ... and already, LeBron James is doing something remarkable and ridiculous. (Guess we need to set the alarm a few minutes earlier from here on out.)
Off a Tony Parker miss early in the first quarter of Sunday morning's matchup, U.S. center Tyson Chandler rebounds and outlets to James. Immediately upon receiving the ball, without a moment's hesitation, the NBA's regular-season and Finals MVP whips about a 60-foot overhead bounce pass that catches a streaking Kevin Durant perfectly in stride at the French foul line, sending Durant in past two trailing defenders for a slam dunk and a foul. The length of the court in three seconds; from potential energy to kinetic energy to explosion.
The assist was one of James' eight in Team USA's 98-71 blowout win, and the dunk accounted for two of Durant's game-high 22 points. It's a breathtaking example of why people have been comparing James to Magic Johnson since his days at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, why combining nearly unmatched feel for the game with a 6-foot-9 frame can be borderline unfair, and how LeBron can show himself to be the most talented player on the floor without even crossing midcourt.
Hat-tip to FPM alum Trey Kerby at The Basketball Jones.
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