“I just gotta get the ball, go strong to the hoop and dunk on somebody.”
Typical pregame talk, but not so typical coming from a hockey player. In this case, Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds, who, along with teammate Claude Giroux, faced the Harlem Globetrotters at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday.
“I’m a power player, not a shooter,” Simmonds said. “The last time I played organized basketball I think I was in Grade 10 and I was probably 5-foot-9. There was no way I was dunking then.”
But five minutes before Giroux and Simmonds scrimmaged against the Washington Generals’ worst nemeses, the two practised an alley-oop routine in which Giroux lobbed a ball up with a hockey stick for Simmonds to slam home.
“Obviously, G’s a great setup man,” Simmonds smiled.
The hockey stick alley-oop:
Globetrotters vs. Flyers highlights:
Pre-game trash talk: