The Miami Heat picked up a 108-107 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night in a tense, back-and-forth game that saw a wide open Cam Reddish three at the buzzer rim out after he received a pass from LeBron James.
James has, rather famously, always been willing to make the right read and right pass to teammates for better or worse throughout his career. For years, he got ripped for doing that in his first stint in Cleveland, as people questioned whether he had the “clutch gene” and if he deferred too much, often comparing him to Kobe Bryant who always hunted for the last shot (to varying results). However, there is one moment in James’ career where he was never going to pass the ball, and that was last year against the Thunder in L.A. when he was set to break the NBA’s all-time scoring record.
On James’ record-breaking shot, the photos from the opposite baseline (like the one above) show Thomas Bryant sealing off Shai Gilgeous-Alexander under the rim and calling for the ball as James rises up to set the NBA scoring record. Given the situation, it’s extremely funny to see Bryant calling for the ball, and as he got set to face the Lakers on Monday with his new team in Miami, the Heat broadcast asked him to walk them through why he was calling for the ball in that moment and he had a reasonably (but still funny) explanation.
Story time with Thomas Bryant: The Time He Called for the Ball when LeBron James Set the Scoring Record
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Bryant was just trying to do what LeBron always asked him to do in that situation, which is duck in, get a seal, and get ready for a pass when he got a mismatch. The problem was, Bryant did his math wrong and thought LeBron was still six points from the record, not two, so there he is, calling for the ball in a landmark moment in NBA history and wondering why everyone has their phones out.