【2007 Archives】

Marco Belinelli of the Charlotte Hornets nearly pulled off one of the cheekiest shots in NBA history Thursday night.

Nearly. Stupid rules. There should007 Archivesan exemption for this.

Belinelli was inbounding the ball with Charlotte down one point on the road against the Detroit Pistons and just half a second left on the clock. Standard operating procedure would dictate passing the ball in to a teammate who would then attempt a very quick shot for the win -- but Belinelli tried something incredible instead.

Detroit's Marcus Morris had his back to Belinelli while trying cover other Hornets players as they attempted to get open for a pass. So, seeing no teammates to pass the ball to, Belinelli bounced it off Morris' back then stepped inbounds to gather the carom, then launched a deeeeep three-pointer that banked off the backboard and dropped through the net.

Now, inbounding the ball off a defender's back is a cheeky move -- but one that, while quite rare, is far from unheard of.

You typically see it done from under the basket, when the player inbounding the ball can catch a defender sleeping for an easy layup. Here's Chauncey Billups victimizing Kobe Bryant during a 2009 game, for example.

Nice. Haha.

But to try this move 30 feet from the hoop with less than a second to play and the game on the line?!?!

That's an entirely different thing, and what makes Belinelli's bank one of the cheekiest shots we've ever seen in an NBA game.

Except for one thing -- he was too slow by a hair, so the shot didn't count and the Hornets lost the game.

Dammit! Still, Belinelli gets a "A" for effort in our book and that's what really matters.