In
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, an alley-oop is an offensive play in which one player passes the ball near the basket to a teammate who
jumps, catches the ball in mid-air and
dunks or
lays it in before touching the ground.
The alley-oop combines elements of
teamwork
Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way. Teamwork is seen within the framework of a team, which is a group of interdependent individuals who work toge ...
, pinpoint passing, timing and finishing.
Etymology
The term "alley-oop" is derived from the French term , the cry of a
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
acrobat
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro d ...
about to leap.
The term “
Alley Oop
''Alley Oop'' is a syndicated comic strip created December 5, 1932, by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced a cast of colorful characters and ...
” was first popularized in the United States in 1932 as the name of a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist
V. T. Hamlin.
In
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
, the term "
alley-oop
In basketball, an alley-oop is an offensive play in which one player passes the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid-air and dunks or lays it in before touching the ground.
The alley-oop combines elements of t ...
" first appeared in the 1950s by the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL to describe a high arcing pass from quarterback
Y. A. Tittle
Yelberton Abraham Tittle Jr. (October 24, 1926 – October 8, 2017) was an American professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants; he also ...
to wide receiver
R.C. Owens, who would outleap smaller cornerbacks for touchdown receptions. "
The Catch", the
Dwight Clark touchdown reception from
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Co ...
by which the
49ers gained entry into their first
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
, was also an "alley-oop" pass. The term later became better known from its use in basketball.
History
In the 1950s, some players began grabbing balls in mid-air and then
dunking.
K. C. Jones and
Bill Russell
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played Center (basketball), center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was t ...
teamed up to perform the alley-oop several times while at the
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...
in the mid-1950s.
In addition,
Bill Russell
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played Center (basketball), center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was t ...
,
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman Chamberlain ( ; August21, 1936 – October12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrin ...
at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
and 'Jumping'
Johnny Green
John Waldo Green (October 10, 1908 – May 15, 1989) was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, conductor and pianist. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his ear ...
at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
would frequently grab errant shots by teammates and dunk them. This resulted in a tightening in the enforcement of
offensive goaltending rules in
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
and
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
basketball in the late 1950s.
[
The Phillips 66ers of the ]National Industrial Basketball League
The National Industrial Basketball League was founded in 1947 to enable U.S. mill workers a chance to compete in basketball. The league was founded by the industrial teams (teams sponsored by the large companies and made up of their employees) bel ...
had an alley-oop play in its playbook where Charlie Bowerman would pass the ball to Don Kojis. Kojis played two seasons for the 66ers between 1961 and 1963 making that the time period when the play was executed.
Al Tucker and his brother Gerald at Oklahoma Baptist University are sometimes mistakenly credited with being the first to use the alley-oop in the mid-60s. In Bill Walton
William Theodore Walton III (November 5, 1952 – May 27, 2024) was an American basketball player and television Sports commentator, sportscaster. He played college basketball, collegiately for the UCLA Bruins men's basketball, UCLA Bruins an ...
's record-setting 44-point, 21-for-22 shooting performance for UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
in the 1973 NCAA championship game against Memphis State, six of his baskets came on alley-oop plays.
Some others credit David Thompson as the first player to execute the classic alley-oop play while at North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...
, with his teammates Monte Towe
Monte Corwin Towe (born September 27, 1953) is an American basketball coach and retired basketball player. He was a starting point guard on the 1973-74 North Carolina State Wolfpack men's basketball team, 1973–74 North Carolina State Wolfpack ...
and Tim Stoddard performing the necessary lob passes. NCSU's Thompson popularized the play during the early 1970s, exploiting his 44-inch vertical leap to make the above-the-rim play a recurring staple in the Wolfpack's offensive attack. Because dunking was illegal in college basketball at that time, upon catching the pass, Thompson would simply drop the ball through the hoop – never dunking one until the final play of the final home game of his career.
After a decade of dunking prohibition ended in the NCAA in 1976, the alley-oop became associated in the late 1970s with Michigan State's Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and Greg Kelser
Gregory Kelser (born September 17, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player and current television color commentator. Nicknamed "Special K", Kelser was a key member of the 1979 NCAA Champion Michigan State Spartans and spent s ...
. The duo connected for many highlight alley-oops and would showcase the play in their 1979 national championship run, including the most watched game in the history of the sport, the famed Magic vs. Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
championship game. Three years later, unheralded Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
made the alley-oop an integral part of their undersized offense in 1982
Events
January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...
, ended the regular season eighth in both major polls and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
The following year, North Carolina State also won the national championship on what could be considered the most famous alley-oop of all time against heavily favored Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
in the 1983
1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...
championship game at The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...
. With time running out and the score tied, guard Dereck Whittenburg shot short of the rim, which effectively functioned as a pass to Lorenzo Charles, who caught the ball and stuffed it through the net to win the title in a
During the 1990s, NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
stars turned the alley-oop into the game's ultimate quick-strike weapon. In recent years, teams have often run the alley-oop as a planned play. The 2008 National Champions Kansas Jayhawks
The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools List of college athletic programs in Kansas, in the state of Kansas that participate in ...
had several designs for alley-oops, including some thrown from inbound sets, and could execute them interchangeably with almost all of the players being able to both lob and finish the play.
In popular culture
In the 2008 film '' Semi-Pro'', the protagonist invents the alley-oop after being knocked unconscious and speaking with his deceased mother in a depiction of Heaven.
See also
* Alley-oop (American football)
The alley-oop is an American football play in which the quarterback throws the ball high into the air, and another player jumps up and catches it. Named after V. T. Hamlin's comic strip character Alley Oop, the play was developed in 1957 by San ...
, the original usage of the term in sports
* NBA records
This article lists all-time records achieved in the NBA regular season in major statistical categories recognized by the league, including those set by teams and individuals in a game, season, and career. The NBA also recognizes records from i ...
References
{{Basketball
Basketball terminology