Alright, so this Kevin Durant foot on the line thing, right? It’s been living rent-free in my head for ages. Not just the moment itself, but the whole damn discussion around it. So, I figured, instead of just rewatching the highlight a million times, I’d actually do a bit of a deep dive, my own little investigation, you could say. I wanted to really get into the nitty-gritty of it myself.
First thing I did was to hunt down the best quality footage I could find. You know how it is, some clips are grainy, some are from weird angles. I needed the good stuff. Found a few solid ones, and then I basically parked myself in front of my computer. I remember thinking, “Okay, let’s really break this down.” No fancy lab coats or anything, just me and my screen.
My process was pretty straightforward, nothing too technical. I used some basic video playback software I already had, the kind that lets you go frame by frame. That was the absolute key. Going frame by frame, that’s where the magic, or the heartbreak for Nets fans, really happens. I must have replayed that specific moment – him pulling up, the shot, the foot hitting the floor – I don’t know, maybe a hundred times. Seriously, no exaggeration. I’d slow it down to 0.25x speed, then go even slower, clicking that frame advance button like my life depended on it.
And there it was. Or, wasn’t, depending on how you see it.
- I stared at the tip of his enormous shoe.
- I looked at that white three-point line.
- I squinted, trying to see any sliver of space, any hint of the court color, between the sneaker and the line.
It’s just insane how close it was. We’re talking millimeters, man. The thickness of a couple of pieces of paper, maybe?
I even started taking screenshots of various frames from different clips I found. Then I’d zoom in as much as my software would let me, until it all became a bit of a pixelated mess, but you could still just about make out the edge of his sneaker. And yeah, it was pretty clear to me: it wasn’t over the line, not in any way that was obvious, but it was definitely ON it. Just brushing it. And the rule is simple, right? If any part of the foot is on that line, it’s a two-pointer. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, unfortunately for him.
What really got to me during this whole little project of mine wasn’t just confirming what the refs saw. It was the sheer, unbelievable pressure of that moment. Not just for KD, who had to make the shot, but for the officials, the replay guys in Secaucus. Imagine having to make that call, in real-time and then with replay, with millions of people watching, and the entire game, the entire series, pretty much hanging in the balance. It’s absolutely wild. And then you start thinking about how different basketball history would be if his foot was, like, two millimeters further back. Crazy stuff.
So yeah, that was my “practice.” Just me, a bunch of video clips, and a whole lot of clicking and staring. It didn’t change the outcome of the game, obviously, that was set in stone. But it kinda gave me a new level of appreciation for the insane details in professional sports, and how razor-thin the margins between victory and defeat can truly be. It’s a brutal, beautiful game sometimes. Makes you think, doesn’t it? About all those tiny, almost invisible things that can add up to something huge. Anyway, that’s my two cents on it, from my little obsessive dive into that infamous shot.
