Hall of Fame Yankees legend Yogi Berra famously said that "90 percent of the game is half mental." Well, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Martell Webster got that other 10 percent right, making an incredibly agile and instinctive physical play in the waning moments of his team's game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. The mental part, though, was an entirely different story.
The Nuggets were set to inbound the ball with a three-point lead and just 4.9 seconds left in overtime, but guard Julyan Stone made a bad pass that was stolen by Webster. With just a few ticks left, Webster attacked the basket and drove through the lane for a one-handed dunk, instead of you know, trying to force double overtime with a 3-pointer.
Moments after scoring the meaningless two-point field goal, Webster appeared to realize the mistake he had made, throwing his hands up after the T-Wolves immediately fouled with .5 seconds left.
"What are you doing?" the confused announcer asked.
Jerry Zgoda of the Star-Tribune reported that Webster was actually aware of the situation, but he was hoping to draw a foul for an old-fashioned three-point play.
"If I had to do it over again, yeah, I'd probably pull up for a jump shot," Webster said. "But what was going through my mind was go to the rim and possibly get fouled. The contingency to that shot was get a bucket, get a foul, they miss free throws and we get another shot. It didn't work out that way."
Before Webster had a chance to explain himself, this miscalculation was quickly dubbed one of the worst plays of the season on Twitter.