To be fair to the ball boy, nobody expects Tyler Hansbrough to make a steal on the perimeter then race out on the fast break by himself.
The above happened Monday night late in a close game between Brooklyn and Toronto (with the win Brooklyn is now within three games of the Raptors for the Atlantic division lead, a gap it will not close as Toronto has a much easier schedule ahead). Tied at 90-90 with 3:15 left in the fourth Hansbrough strips Andray Blatche and it is off to the races.
A towel boy out dutifully wiping sweat up off the court is forced to scramble back to the sidelines to avoid getting trampled. He does so with a dramatic dive that almost takes out a referee.
Hansbrough misses the layup. The announcers try to say the ball boy’s distraction had something to do with it, but I think the bigger issue was we are talking Hansbrough — he is shooting 55.9 percent at the rim this season without ball boys in the way. There was a 44 percent chance he was going to miss.
Hat tip to The Brooklyn Game for the video.
