John Wall Goes All Degree of Difficulty on the Bulls

Occasionally, in the midst of an otherwise pedestrian NBA game, a player will make a shot seemingly out of nowhere that reminds us of the entertainment possibilities of the game of basketball.

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall recently provided such an example.

In a home win over Chicago, Wall received an outlet pass and headed to the basket with only Mike Dunleavy in his path. Dunleavy executed the prerequisite grab and hold quite effectively, but Wall still managed to get up a shot anyway, twisting and contorting his body in the process.

By all means, have a look.

  

That is positively filthy, as the kids are fond of saying.

The athleticism required to getting that shot off is impressive enough, even without the end result. The fact that the ball actually went in is almost incidental, as there is a tremendous amount of luck involved in such a play.

You see these types of plays in the Association from time to time when a player is fouled on a fast break driving to the basket. There are varying degrees of aggressiveness with fouls in these situations, ranging from soft to extremely physical. Sometimes, a foul falls directly in the middle of this spectrum, and a player has an opportunity to produce a spectacular basketball shot.

The NBA regular season can be quite a grind, and many games are rather dull and monotonous. But when a player like Wall executes such an athletic and creative play, it illustrates just how cool the game of basketball can be at this level.

Much love to Wall for reminding us of this fact.

And despite the circus-like nature of the shot, to the best of our knowledge, John Wall will not be joining the carnival circuit.

Not yet anyway.