This Week In GIFs: Emergency basketball session

It’s quite evident to me by this point that basketball stands alongside baseball as the greatest GIF sport. There are a lot of them, a lot of them are great, and it should be pointed out that the Greatest Sports GIF of All Time is, in fact, an NBA GIF. We’ve spent so much time watching football in recent months, we decided, that we had some catching up to do.

So here is one half of a very special edition of THIS WEEK IN GIFs. This is an all-basketball GIF poll; voting, as usual, will close at 11 p.m. Sunday. And when you’re done, be sure to check out the special hockey edition.

I have my personal favorite. So do my fellow GIF enthusiasts, Matt Ufford and Dan Rubenstein. Here, we plead our cases:

Vince Carter is now 36 years old, and it appears as though he has transitioned from an “old man game” to a “really old man game” -- faking one’s injury so convincingly that one is left entirely unguarded. By age 38 he’s just gonna walk around the court and pull the “nickel out of the ear” trick on opponents. Basketball will not be played by him.

Unrequited high-fives are a time-honored sports GIF tradition, and this one might be the best of its kind we’ve ever seen. Ball Don’t Lie’s Dan Devine said it best: “And that day, a new Aaron Gray was born.”

Tayshaun Prince ought to buy an iPad, set it to perpetually loop this GIF, and set it in his trophy case. He had spent his entire decade and change in the NBA in a Pistons uniform, and had long been a fan favorite. On Jan. 31 he was traded, but nobody told his biggest fan.

Man. Dude even had a UK shirt under his jersey. His wardrobe is a Russian nesting doll of Tayshaun Prince’s entire life. If that’s where he’s going with this, he might want to become a Raja Bell fan. It’s cold outside.

I’ve heard it said before that Heaven and Hell are the same place: a giant dining hall with people seated at the tables with giant forks and knives instead of arms, unable to bring food into their mouths. The difference is that people in Hell are left to starve, and people in Heaven feed each other. Welcome to Heaven, Lakers! You are below .500 and are bad.

Blake Griffin managed to fit every single thing he’s ever done into a single, labyrinthine succession of post moves. You can execute this move in NBA 2K13 by placing the controller on the floor and using it as a miniature Power Pad.

Mr. Borzello has already reflected on the ensemble cast of this GIF in great detail. I can identify at least seven verbal/gestural obscenities here, and I could probably find more if I looked a little closer. It’s just so much to behold.

We’re always on the lookout for the next YANKEE ENTHUSIASTS GIF, and we may have finally found its successor.

(Via @cjzero)

BLAAPPPPP

When LeBron finally won his ring last year, I wondered whether he’d have a Michael Jordan moment, lying on the locker-room carpet and clutching the trophy and sobbing. He didn’t, really. He just smiled a whole bunch. Here, though, Regular Dude hits a half-court shot to win a fan contest, and LeBron just LOSES it.

Guh. I love this dude.

VOTE! And when you’re done, y’all don’t forget to vote on this week’s NHL GIFs.