BallinEurope may be posting a bit sporadically this week in an attempt to catch up on a few mundanities of life, but fear not! BiE will not be leaving the site high and dry: Beginning today runs a series we’ll call “The 35 Greatest Basketball YouTubes of All-Time.”
Why 35? ‘Cuz it’s easily divided by seven.
In selecting the videos on this list, BiE did not discriminate for or against clips made expressly for the YouTube format. User-created original videos were held to the same standard as, say, a directly-ripped music video and game highlight. However, clips which do not stand alone as a truly individual YouTube, e.g. stuff like part one of the 1992 USA-Croatia game, though brilliant, was not considered.
In the final analysis, the main criteria in judgment was simply “Does this succeed as a YouTube clip?” Special brownie points went to funny vids.
Please remember that all decisions are purely the opinions of BiE, and that there’s simply no accounting for taste. And please feel free to throw in links to your own favorites in the comments section – but be cool about it, folks.
Now, without further ado, the first wave of The 35 Greatest Basketball YouTubes of all-time.
35. Doug Christie punches Rick Fox! This is a hilarious bit of minimalistic mixing, even if you’re a Lakers fan. Probably especially if you’re a Lakers fan.
34. Andray Blatche: The Man who just Wanted a Triple-Double. The lowlight of 2009-10 NBA action? When Blatche tried to channel Ricky Davis in this meaningless Washington Wizards-New Jersey Nets game. Funny and frustrating.
33. Can you top it? BiE’s first (only, really) viral video features one of the all-time great buzzer-beaters; the best of all-time is further down the list, by the way.
32. Tendency to hyperbolize + obsession with dunks = This best missed dunks compilation video. Though BiE notes that this clip does *not* include this most memorable example of the category, nor does it include the officially-sanctioned “Greatest Missed Dunk of All-Time.” (Note to my fellow Americans: Fans in Europe laugh when we talk about stuff like this with straight faces.)
31. Is there any more twistedly funny regular release to YouTube than the “Machine Videos” cranked out at Lakers-Fan.com? Damn, are these guys going to be sorry when L.A. doesn’t re-sign ol’ Sasha Vujacic. Meanwhile, enjoy The Machine Scare Leprechauns, possibly the last Machine Video ever. Sigh.
Tomorrow: Counting down from 30 to 26 with YouTubes featuring Barack Obama, Charles Barkley, Rosie Perez and the ABA.
