In Vic Mensa’s debut mixtape, Innanetape, he has an interlude called “Fun.”
“And I was just like, and I was lookin’ in the sun and I was just like, man, this shit is about having fuckin’ fun. This shit is all about fun.”
Vic was talking about music of course, but the same line of thought applies to basketball. Winning and money are important. Theres’ no doubt about that, especially in the NBA. But at its core, the game of basketball is about fun. For the most part, none of these guys would be here if they didn’t think playing basketball was fun.
Nick Young certainly has fun playing basketball. Really, there’s probably no one in the league who has as much fun as Swaggy P. Whether it’s on the court or on the bench, Swaggy is always involved in some kind of entertaining antics. It rubs some people the wrong way, but the good thing about that is it easily identifies those people as people you definitely should not be rocking with.
Last night in the Lakers’ preseason game against the Warriors, Swaggy was having fun out on the court, because, well, what else would he be doing? At one point he hit three three-pointers in a row, one of which even resulted in a four-point play. One of those triples also lead to an awesome celebration, which lead to this tremendous Instagram picture.
Everything about this is perfect. It’s peak Swaggy P, an exuberant celebration right in front of his team’s bench after a somewhat meaningless three-pointer in the first half of a preseason game.
Most of the time this preseason he’s been going to the “Dab” celebration after hitting a big shot, but on this occasion he hits a strong whip. And you already know he’s looking straight at the camera.
Plus look at his teammates hyping him up. They way they come off the bench to celebrate with Swaggy almost forms a dance circle around him for a few brief seconds. Six Man like Lou Will is right behind him screaming encouragement like a true hype man. Meanwhile Roy Hibbert and others have their arms in the air confirming that yes, that was a triple.
It’s a picture full of fun, a brief moment of joy that perfectly encapsulates what Nick Young and basketball are all about.