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The secret cannot be kept much longer. Even as you read this, it’s leaking out, as it has for the last few years. First word of mouth, then e-mails and message boards, and after a magazine drops, you can bet the rest of the media will be all over it.
He is known as Cesar, but out in L.A., he is known as “Neo.” At Rucker they call him “Legal Tender.” At Mosswood it’s “Shaman.” At The Dome in B-More, they tagged him “Mute” because he had them drowning out the go-go music. In Atlanta, they just called him “Damn.”
I saw it last fall, late one night at Run ’N Shoot in Atlanta. The gym was mostly empty, save for a bunch of Atlanta-based NBA players and their regular pickup game. All Star Games were in a few weeks, and these guys were still trying to ease into shape. I was there with Hawks stars Al Horford and Jeff Teague.
The pros were halfway through their first game when he walked in. He paid his $7 entrance fee with change, plopping down a handful of quarters, dimes and nickels on the counter, then strolled over to an empty court on the side. I remember thinking he was homeless.
“Of course I remember that night!” recalls Spurs veteran and former Hawk Kevin Willis. “First of all, he was wearing a t-shirt and these dirty-*** blue jean shorts, and before he went out there he took his shoes and socks off. Who the hell plays barefoot?”
The pros kept playing, but I wandered around their court to get a better look at this guy. He wasn’t really tall, but he wasn’t short, either, and his physique was somewhere in between skinny and fit. To warm up, he walked on his hands the length of the court and back. His balance was perfect. Then he did a bunch of somersaults, maybe five or six. He then walked over and, standing flat-footed, jumped up and grabbed the rim, swinging there for a few seconds. He dropped down and picked up a basketball and instead of spinning it on his finger, he simply balanced it there, the ball motionless, effortlessly floating atop his digit.
He walked to the free-throw line, toed the stripe, dribbled twice, then cocked the ball back and heaved it, one-handed, at the basket — the basket at the other end of the court. Swish.
The ball fell to floor and rolled toward me, so I picked it up and threw it back to him. He did it again. Swish. And again. And again.
After the sixth consecutive make, the pros took notice. “I’m serious, it was at least 20 straight,” says Teague. “He wasn’t shooting jump shots, either! He was throwing it, like a baseball or like a football. Someone asked if he was Mike Vick.”
Vick is actually a pretty good comparison, because he wasn’t just tossing it up near the basket. He was aiming, with a football-like follow-through and everything. After 10 from the free-throw line, he started moving around a bit, never taking a shot any closer than halfcourt, and never missing, either.
“Hey, young fella!” The bass voice of Dale Davis echoed through the gym. I turned around to notice the pros had stopped, and were all paying attention. “You wanna run with us?”
The guy looked right at Dale, spun the ball in his hands, then reared back and fired the ball high into the air, where it sailed over everyone’s heads, nearly skimming the ceiling and then ripping through the net on the court where the pros were playing. It was at least 150 feet away.
The run ended 90 minutes later, heads shaking all around. He had missed four shots over six games, making 35 (I kept track). All 39 shots he attempted were from beyond halfcourt, and none of the attempts were conventional jump shots. Instead, they came off the dribble: he’d take the inbounds pass, yo-yo the ball, run to his left or right and then pull back and fire. Three. No dummies, the NBA guys started doubling him in the backcourt, and he would simply dribble backward, drawing the two guys closer, then lob it up the court, where his teammates had a four-on-three break. The defense then decided to show a double-team but refused to commit, which would leave him with enough room to flick it up over the top. He was unguardable. He never celebrated, never spoke a word on the court. He just scored.
And he did all this barefoot, in blue jean shorts and a plain white t-shirt. Hail, Cesar!
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