DONOVAN MITCHELL WAS in a bind. It was the fourth quarter of a home game against the Sacramento Kings on February 5, 2024, and Mitchell`s Cleveland Cavaliers held a double-digit lead. The six-time All-Star, however, found himself in a precarious position after executing a pick-and-roll with his big man, Jarrett Allen. Mitchell drove towards the top of the key with defender Kevin Huerter trailing him and stopped his dribble. He spotted an open passing lane to Allen, but Domantas Sabonis got a hand on it, leaving Mitchell stranded on his pivot foot with the ball near the free-throw line.
Huerter quickly closed in, pressuring Mitchell, who attempted various fakes and pivots without success. The shot clock was winding down. With Huerter guarding his right side tightly and Sabonis crowding Allen to prevent an easy pass inside, Mitchell, running out of time and options, deployed one last maneuver: He threw the ball off the backboard to himself, leaping to complete a self-assisted dunk.
“There`s really no strategy going into it,” Mitchell told ESPN last month. “You`re trapped, you have nowhere to go. You`re just attempting to figure things out.”
This is precisely what Ja Morant did when he was airborne during the Memphis Grizzlies` recent play-in game against the Golden State Warriors. Finding himself unable to get a good look at the hoop after jumping, he instinctively threw the ball off the glass to himself, then caught it on the opposite side of the rim for a layup, resembling a real-game Mikan drill.
The “self alley-oop” was once a rarity, a move most fans and players associated with a few early 2000s stars who, in moments of desperation, used it both to escape trouble and create spectacular highlights. Yet, in the years since, the play has moved beyond being merely a flashy highlight. It`s increasingly utilized strategically by some of the league`s most athletic and imaginative players. And its true origins, also tactical in nature, predate many of these modern stars, reaching back nearly to the NBA`s beginnings.
HALL OF FAMER Tracy McGrady`s forceful self alley-oop during the 2002 All-Star Game was many NBA fans` first glimpse of this highlight-reel play. McGrady took advantage of the All-Star Game`s relaxed style to toss the ball off the glass from beyond the free-throw line and leaped from the inner free-throw circle for an uncontested dunk.
Several of McGrady`s high-flying contemporaries, including Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant, famously executed the move. But surprisingly, so did someone less known for theatrics — Tim Duncan.
As a rookie in 1997, Duncan, nicknamed “The Big Fundamental” for his consistently straightforward play, was tightly guarded by Houston Rockets big man Kevin Willis. Duncan tossed the ball high off the glass to create space, caught it, and threw down a simple two-handed slam, devoid of drama. This wasn`t Duncan showing off; he was simply caught in an awkward spot, saw the backboard as a way out, and went for it. Michael Jordan also used the move tactically with the Bulls in the mid-90s (for a layup, not a dunk).
The opposite extreme, in terms of both hang time and confidence, was Shaquille O`Neal`s execution during the 1996 Olympics. O`Neal`s self-oop was a boastful highlight, a 300-pound force of nature openly mocking his opponent on a wide-open fast break.
However, the play`s genuine roots – using the backboard as a passing tool – trace back to a significant moment in the NBA`s early history.
With mere seconds left in double overtime of Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals, the St. Louis Hawks were down by two points against Bill Russell`s Boston Celtics. Hawks player-coach Alex Hannum, who hadn`t played in nearly a month (according to author Terry Pluto in `Tall Tales`), called a timeout and designed a bold play: Hannum would inbound the ball from under his own basket (timeouts didn`t allow advancing the ball back then) and throw it the full length of the court off the backboard. Hawks star Bob Pettit was instructed to position himself at the free-throw line, catch the rebound, and lay the ball in to force a tie.
It nearly worked.
Hannum actually hit the backboard from 94 feet away, a remarkable feat in itself. The ball also grazed the rim, and Pettit was positioned well enough to catch it in midair and put it back up, but the shot rolled off the rim.
“I should have converted the shot,” Pettit reportedly said later, as quoted in Pluto`s book. “Alex`s pass was flawless.”
While video footage exists, it only captures the moments after Pettit`s miss as the Celtics began celebrating their championship – the first of 11 titles in Russell`s legendary career.
Although not precisely a self alley-oop, the play clearly demonstrated the potential for tactical use of the backboard beyond standard shooting. Sixty-five years later, in 2022, the Ohio Bobcats used a similar play to force overtime against the Michigan Wolverines. Today, some of the game`s most prominent stars are discovering creative and strategic ways to use the backboard for more than just generating highlight plays.
CELTICS STAR AND 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown`s self alley-oop for a layup earlier this season was reminiscent of Duncan in its practicality. Brown saw an opening between himself and the hoop and decided mid-air to abandon his initial shot plan, turning it into a self-pass. Whether it was pure instinct or learned behavior (as he`s attempted this play before), his coach wasn`t surprised.
“It`s simply a smart play,” Joe Mazzulla stated. “It`s a play great players make. It`s permissible.”
Multiple individuals within the NBA`s officiating department confirmed the play`s legality, even though it isn`t explicitly detailed in the rulebook.
“The rulebook is quite clear: You cannot recover your own pass unless it has hit the backboard or the rim,” said Monty McCutchen, NBA senior vice president of referee development and training. “Once it contacts the backboard or the rim, it is perfectly clear that anyone can touch it.”
The increased use of this play as a strategic tactic coincides with players` growing understanding of pivot foot regulations and the resulting rise in “step-through” moves seen throughout the league. While this often appears to be a traveling violation to casual observers (and even some trained eyes), NBA rules permit players to jump off their pivot foot and even land on their non-pivot foot after stopping their dribble, provided their pivot foot does not touch the floor again before they pass or shoot.
More players have realized in recent years just how much ground this allows them to cover, even after picking up their dribble. The self-oop is one of several plays that have increased in frequency as a result.
Because it requires significant coordination and timing, the self alley-oop may never become commonplace, but some of the league`s elite athletes recognize its value beyond creating highlight reels. Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has executed it multiple times in his career, both from the post and on fast breaks. LA Clippers guard Ben Simmons used the move several times earlier in his career, in the NBA and collegiately at LSU. Morant, Joel Embiid, Anthony Edwards, Jrue Holiday, Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray, and Tyrese Haliburton have all used it in competitive games – almost always as a tactic, not a stunt. Even Denver`s Nikola Jokic did it for a layup in the 2021 playoffs, proving the play relies as much on intelligence and savvy as it does on athleticism.
“It can serve as a weapon,” Mitchell commented. “LeBron has done it in the playoffs.”
Indeed, not just the playoffs, but also in the NBA Finals. LeBron James has, predictably, been one of the most frequent users of the self-oop throughout his career. From All-Star Games to regular-season matchups and the league`s most significant contests, James has never hesitated to use the backboard to assist himself.
It is arguably Kobe Bryant, however, who stands out as the modern pioneer in using the backboard as a self-assist mechanism. Renowned for his exceptional footwork, Bryant seems to have been among the first to grasp the potential space created by the step-through move off a pivot foot and the backboard`s role in facilitating it. The Los Angeles Lakers icon had numerous self-oops in his career highlights, suggesting he practiced the play regularly.
Bryant clearly viewed this as a smart basketball play. However, sometimes the line between tactical use and simply showing off can become blurred.
THE UTAH JAZZ held a narrow six-point lead just after halftime of their game in San Antonio on December 26, 2023, when Collin Sexton received a pass off a turnover, leading to an open fast break opportunity.
“I thought, `You know what? Why not?`” Sexton recalled. What happened next surprised everyone: an even more flamboyant variation of the self alley-oop, this one off the floor for a 360 dunk.
Although the play seemed to offer no tactical advantage over a standard dunk or layup, Sexton perceived it as a morale booster for his teammates.
“It creates a shift in momentum,” Sexton explained. “Sometimes that energy helps the team get fired up.”
Three minutes after Sexton`s dunk, the Jazz extended their lead from six points to twelve, and they ultimately won the game. Whether the spectacular play genuinely served as a galvanizing factor is debatable, but it seemingly caused no harm.
“You had better successfully complete it,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said, with a significant hint of deadpan humor. “But Collin made that dunk. And our team found it quite amusing, primarily because they knew I wasn`t thrilled with it.
“There`s probably a segment of the crowd that mutters about the `sanctity of the game,` and so forth. I am not one of those individuals. However, I strongly advise that you succeed if you attempt it. Because if you don`t, then we encounter the situation where I become very upset.”
For his part, Sexton remains unconcerned about that potential risk. He stated that he hopes to do it again.
“If I get subbed out, I get subbed out,” he said with a broad smile. “[Coach] will put me back in.”
It is difficult to definitively prove whether the self alley-oop is occurring more frequently in the NBA, as neither the league nor private optical tracking systems specifically record it. Even within basic NBA play-by-play logs, different versions of self-oops appear to be logged inconsistently. Plays like Mitchell`s or Sexton`s, where the player clearly intended to pass to himself from the start, are simply recorded as unassisted dunks. However, a play like Brown`s, where the ball handler appears to change his plan while in the air, is logged as a missed shot, a rebound, and a subsequent putback.
Meanwhile, optical tracking systems seem to capture these plays as missed shots rebounded by the same player. Yet, even with specific requests, these systems currently cannot distinguish between a self alley-oop and any other instance where a player rebounds their own miss and scores shortly after.
Nonetheless, Mazzulla mentioned that he and his coaching staff have discussed it as a potential element of their game plan.
“The backboard could be utilized more in specific scenarios,” Mazzulla commented. “On downhill drives where a smaller defender attempts to box out a larger player, if you throw it off the glass, the taller player has a height advantage and can retrieve it.”
Regardless of how it is used, the self alley-oop remains a remarkable moment in any NBA game. At its core, one could even argue it perfectly embodies the aspects that make basketball such a joy to witness.
“It can be something quite extraordinary,” Mitchell concluded. “It represents creativity and pure improvisation.”
