Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 11:00 am  |  44 responses

Video: Andrei Kirilenko Airballs the Game-Tying Layup

AK47 misses everything from point-blank range, and all head coach Ty Corbin can do is look on in disbelief, and sweat away the pain:

(H/T: @jose3030)

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  • http://slamonline Brion

    I was rollin when he did that.

  • Fat Lever

    Kenyon Martin with that final swipe after AK47 took it away saved the win for the Nuggets. Threw off Kirelenko just enough.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Max

    Instead of Martin just inbounding the ball, trying to get a technical really?

  • Charles

    that’s tough to watch if your a Jazz fan.

  • http://www.pablasso.com pablasso

    What a dumb play by Kenyon.

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com Seth

    @Fat Lever, yep, had to watch it four or five times to catch it.

  • Bimmer

    pffthahahahaha funniest thing I saw last night. Besides that huge lead Miami blew lol what a night.

  • http://slamonline.com The Black Rick Kamla

    thats tough to watch if your a Nuggets fan

  • O.R Paperstacks

    THe title is misleading. Making it sound like he was all alone for a layup or something. It was a great play by Kirilenko to steal the ball on an inbound but Keyon put a hand on it right when he was going up. Btw, could the refs call something on that since Kenyon touch the ball while out of bounds? Anyways, loved Webber’s reaction lol

  • http://nobulljive.com/ Enigmatic

    Looks like Kalashnikov needs to switch to 5.56 rounds.

  • Lazarus

    are you guys serious slam? there should be 0 hate on ak for this. he got the steal in the first place, no one can expect that from him so what ever he does after is bonus. as fat lever said kenyon made the ball slip enough from aks hands to force the mistake on the rushed shot, not to mention touching the ball out of bounds. should be the jazz ball with 1 second left.

  • rondo4mvp

    Kenyon martin must have been stoned or something to do a play as sh*tty as that

  • http://nba.com EJ

    You can’t blame AK for the loss, but that was terrible. What are you people talking that it wasn’t an open layup? That’s about as easy as it can get. When you get millions for playing ball, you got to make that.

  • http://www.twitter.com/dfrance21 dfrance21

    Paperstacks and Lazarus are spot on. The title is totally misleading. He basically got stripped of the ball and was just trying his hardest to get it up on the rim. Honestly if you look at it in slow mo, it looks like he was trying to dunk it and his fingertips were still on the ball when time expired. Maybe he held it a little longer because of the swipe, but it doesn’t even look like he was gonna get the shot off.

    Bonehead play by Martin turning the ball over, but a smart play disrupting the shot.

  • http://bashmo_4@hotmail.com bashmo

    Martin made a great defensive play by swipin the ball, AK probably shouldve just pivoted and went up. But are you allowed to touch the ball like that while out of bounds on KMarts part? Like that doesnt seem legit, he was standing out of bounds.

  • reflex

    Kmart didn’t make a ‘great defensive play’ by swiping the ball but rather effed up a basic inbound pass which might have cost his team, similarly AK messed up a basic layup irregardless of whether Martin distracted him. These a professional NBA players ffs! Those plays wouldn’t be sympathised with at my weekly amateur scrimmage!

  • youngmuggsy

    To be fair he had just over a second to get the steal and shoot the ball.

  • http://www.slamonline.com c_cantrell

    you guys that are hating and saying AK had a simple shot and should have made it are just completely ignorant.. have yal ever actually played basketball and been in this situation?(of gettin the ball swiped while going up that is).. its damn near impossible to complete a play like that, so stop hatin

  • http://hibachi20.blogspot.com Moose

    It wouldn’t have counted anyways.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    C’mon now. That was a bad play. Yeah, it was a tough shot, but c’mon son.
    c’mon son.

  • Riggs

    it was to tie not to win.

  • http://www.slamonline.com c_cantrell

    if yal dont understand the difficulty of that shot, then yal dont understand basketball

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    He never lost possession of the ball. Martin barely got his finger tips on it. NBA player regularly make that shot in every single game.

  • http://www.slamonline.com c_cantrell

    he had his hand on the ball enough to disrupt the shot and cause ak to lose control of it, and the whole time trying to get the shot up as soon as possible.. and no, average nba players do not regularly make that shot in every single game

  • http://www.twiter.com/dfrance21 dfrance21

    Martin shifted the ball in his hands, coupled with the fact that he was swinging the ball up from his hip made him lose control of the ball. AK was already only gripping the ball with his fingertips.

    Like bashmo said, he never should have bounced the ball. He wasn’t gonna get it off in time anyway.

  • Toronto

    Martin touching the ball while out of bounds is what, a tech? Should’ve been a technical, or something to that effect. Also, the refs were reviewing the call; isn’t that something that can retroactively called? Kirilenko lost the ball on an ILLEGAL play. I don’t care if he missed a 1 foot shot or a 30 foot shot. The defender made an illegal play. That’s the hidden, and most important, issue.

  • ripslam

    Missing I can understand, but not even touching the rim? That’s pathetic. He was a foot away.

  • http://slamonline.com tealish

    He should’ve made it, but it’s a tougher play than it looks. You don’t expect Kenyon to be that careless and just hand you the ball. And with a second left, you’re definitely rushing. You could execute your natural lay-up and possibly not beat the clock. Or you rush it. He rushed it and missed baaaaaadly.

  • mike

    reminds me of the missed courtney lee layup in the NBA FINALS…….

  • AveJoes20

    @toronto martin touching that would have just been out of bounds.

  • http://theroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    He should have put it up as soon as he stole it.
    @ ripslam: Actually the ball slipped out of his hands, plus I think Martin got a hand on it, AND he was rushing for the clock. Definitely shouldn’t have dribbled.

  • http://theroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    @ Toronto: I hear you but the refs actually can’t use replay to change any calls they have made (or neglected to make) once time expires. They can only check to see if the ball has left his hands in time, IF the shot goes in, or how much time should be left on the clock. Or, if the ball was knocked out of bounds and they CALLED IT, they could check to see who it was off of. But they can’t go back in time to make up for missed calls. It sucks but it makes a tad bit of sense.

  • Yesse

    How do you miss a wide open layup? By the way, isn’t that out of bounds if Kenyon touches the ball from there?

  • http://360special.blogspot.com dev0

    he was just way too excited at the chance to do something relevant in the NBA again

  • ktokyo

    He was too busy thinking about how his hair looked – fumbled the ball.

  • wilz

    his awkwardness definitely failed him

  • http://wwww.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

    7.62 jammed

  • German Reignman

    Co-Sign Yesse …. inbounds Utah with 0,8 seconds remaining caus K-Mart is out of bounds

  • Sammy da Bull

    Hey – K-Mart touched the ball while in the hands of AK while he was out-of-bounds….is that legal??

  • TonyStarks

    The title of this article makes it seem a lot worse than it really is .. he didn’t really have full control of the ball going up plus K-Mart reached in and got the ball

  • flippity

    When I first saw the post, I thought Kirilenko was that lady from Glee played by Sue Sylvester. I was like, “oh cool, Glee’s going NBA.” Check out the resemblence: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2921824512/ch0144273

  • http://Boom Aaron Laucke

    Come on that’s terrible play by both players

  • Gus

    that´s exactly what happens when you are a no good lazy bum who just enjoys his millions

  • http://none Larry from Brooklyn

    Nobody could’ve made that shot -Cousy,Maravich,Jordan-but no excuses for the immortal Andrei Kirilenko !! If anyone choked,it was the refs.

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