The Oklahoma City Thunder recruited Alex Caruso for his defensive prowess and on Wednesday he showed why.
The veteran guard showed he has all the hustle NBA coaches look for when he attempted to block a shot with his own shoe during his team’s win over the Magic in Orlando.
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In the second quarter of the contest, Caruso lost his left shoe while he was running back in transition.
The 32-year-old swiftly picked it up off the hardwood and finding himself in the paint as Orlando’s Tristan da Silva rolled to the rim.
After getting around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, da Silva had an open lane to finish off the left-handed layup … or so he thought.
As he went to launch towards the basket, Caruso with his shoe in his right hand swiped at the ball and knocked it out of the Magic star’s hand.
Watch the truly bizarre incident unfold in the video player above
The officials then converged to discuss the incident which they ruled to be a goaltend, while also slapping the Thunder veteran with a technical foul because he had used an illegal object to block a shot.
Footage of the truly bizarre moment quickly whipped around social media with basketball fans losing their minds over what had unfolded. Many of whom had not seen the fallout to the play in which Caruso was penalised.
Kristopher London wrote on X: “OKC getting on my nerves now, this is legal?”
Boston’s Burner wrote: “This is quite literally so illegal.”
A third wrote: “That can’t be legal. If you can’t punch the ball no way you can use your shoe lol.”
Of course not everyone was outraged by the moment with countless seeing the funny side in the defensive tactic.
Ian Schafer wrote: “Was that his sole block of the game.”
Vincent Fong posted: “Give this guy the defensive player of the year award already.”
One wrote: “What an interesting method of defense.”
Another added: “Why tf hahahahahah this is NBA blooper hall of fame worthy.”
Sadly for Caruso the blocked shot didn’t count towards the stat sheet, but it mattered little as the Thunder recorded the 113-108 victory to move to 54-15 on the season.
The defending NBA champions sit clear on top of the Western Conference standings with 13 games remaining before the playoffs begin.