While the Indiana Pacers defeated the New York Knicks 125-11 on Saturday night, a play from Indiana’s Obi Toppin will probably be seen in blooper reels for a while.
Toppin logged 17 minutes off of the bench for Indiana, scoring nine points. It should have been 11. In the second quarter, Toppin stole a pass from New York’s Alec Burks and took off for what looked like it would be an unimpeded layup or dunk. Only, Toppin was impeded — by himself.
Rather than a simple dunk, Toppin got fancy. He tried trying to put the ball between his legs, perhaps trying to give his brother, Slam Dunk contest participant Jacob Toppin, inspiration. Only, it didn’t quite work that way. Toppin was denied by the rim.
"Went for the show. No go."
Eddie Gill on the call for Obi Toppin unfortunate blooper. pic.twitter.com/oAvCWz0u2X
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 11, 2024
Oops. https://t.co/8KPg5x4fdA
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) February 11, 2024
The fact that Toppin is a former Knick, doing this in his former home arena in front of old teammates, makes this mistake even better.
Toppin actually recovered nicely from the mistake, scoring all but two of his nine points in the game after the blunder. So, we can certainly credit him for that. And from the team perspective, he can be happy that the Pacers still won comfortably.
Still, we’re guessing it’s going to take him a while to completely live this down.
