"It was no big problem, really. Tall men were in abundance. One flick of a wingspan could have alleviated the logjam. But Ed Davis and Jerry Bayless had a different idea. They challenged teammate James Johnson to dislodge the balls with an improbable implement — specifically, his foot. And soon enough Johnson, who is both 6-foot-9 and a black belt in kenpo karate, was wowing the squad with an airborne freak show.
“He looked like a ninja warrior,” marvelled Francesco Cuzzolin, the club’s strength and conditioning coach. “He was jumping in the air, spinning 360 and kicking the balls in the net. His head was over the rim, his legs were splitting, and he’s kicking the balls. It was something I’ve never seen in my life.”
“I got challenged. I’m about challenges, so I took it on and tried it,” he said. “I can make my foot touch the rim . . . That was just a spinning back kick. I just jumped to do it.”
https://www.thestar.com/sports/bask...k_ninja_raptor_james_johnson_turns_heads.html