HIGH POINT, N.C. -- The video is a little grainy, but the play is revolutionary -- a double alley-oop.
The play was caught on camera during a Dec. 9 Westchester Country Day School varsity boy's basketball game in High Point, North Carolina. It then garnered more than 3 million views after it was posted on YouTube.
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Passer Georg Wolff, alley-ooper No. 1, Deuce Bello, and alley-ooper No. 2, Ike Nwamu, said they had no idea they'd become an Internet sensation.
"It went from like 3,000 views to like a million the next day," Nwamu said. "It feels pretty good -- a little awkward."
Westchester coach Pat Kahny admitted that the groundbreaking play wasn't part of some genius basketball plan. The Wildcats (18-1) won the game over Elon High School.
The play shows Wolff toss the ball from just outside the top of the key to a soaring Bello, who then grabs the ball in midair and throws it to Nwamu for a final slam dunk.
"This was only meant in fun. We were running one of our regular alley-oop plays in practice and one of our assistant coaches, Corey Evans -- and I have to give him credit for this. He said, 'Coach, why don't we bring Ike out of the corner and throw a double alley-oop?' And I kind of laughed," Kahny said.
The players said they had the same reaction to the idea of a double alley-oop.
"We all thought it was a joke. We really did," Wolff said.
But now the play, and the fame, are certainly no joke. The players' Facebook pages have been flooded with people they don't know asking questions about the play.
Kahny is even getting a little attention of his own.
"My brother called me and said, 'Hey, I was watching my 10-year-old play the other day and two rows below me, two guys were talking about the double alley-oop. They said, 'This guy ought to look at patenting it because pro and college people are going to be looking at doing it down the road,'" Kahny said.
Wolff, a foreign exchange student from Germany, said even people there are reveling in the play.
"I'm from Berlin, and basketball's not as popular," he said. "And it was great to hear from my people back (there) -- that they saw it and they think it was great and they will try it."
Stay tuned. They three players said they may run the play again in an upcoming game. What do you think of the shot? Leave your comments below.
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