‘I just happened to be up there, so I figured I would dunk it.’ The instant oral history of Donovan Mitchell’s incredible putback slam.

HOUSTON — There are occasional moments in basketball that transcend rational thought, fandom, press box rules, and anything but an unadulterated and fervent emotional reaction from those fortunate enough to witness it. Donovan Mitchell had one such moment Wednesday.

Halfway through the fourth quarter of Game 2 against the Houston Rockets, which eventually ended in a 116-108 Utah Jazz win, Mitchell burst into the lane for a simple floater. He left it short, with the ball glancing off the front of the rim. The subsequent carom fell directly towards him, delicately, primed for an offensive rebound.

Any other guard — with their movements beholden to physics and gravity — would have corralled the ball and landed with it before pondering their next action. Mitchell is not any other guard. He, instead, did this.

It’s a play that’s as shocking as it was impressive, a sequence that we were already mentally envisioning play out like 99 percent of these situations do before Mitchell jolted everyone awake in an instant.

As a professional basketball journalist, the only responsible follow-up is a mini-but-thorough oral history of the play, as told by the Utah Jazz players and other onlookers. (All media members interviewed were in the arena to see the play live.)

The following interviews have been lightly edited and condensed.

DONOVAN MITCHELL, the perpetrator: To be honest with you, I was just trying to shoot a floater and grab a rebound, but I just happened to be up there, so I figured why come down with it?

JOE INGLES, Jazz forward: [smiles, shakes head, and puts his hand over his face in response to Mitchell’s answer]

HOWARD BECK, Bleacher Report senior NBA writer: I think you should do the oral history on his explanation in the press conference, frankly. “I just happened to be up there, so I figured I would dunk it,” is really one of the more remarkable explanations that I’ve heard of a dunk.

INGLES: His mid-air decision should have been to get back in transition defense. I guarantee you that’s in the film study tomorrow.

JAE CROWDER, Jazz forward: Just know my jaw dropped. And I was on the court. I can only imagine people on the court watching it.

ROYCE O’NEALE, Jazz forward: Just look at everybody’s reactions on the bench. That sums it up.

BECK: In the moment, I think I had the same reaction as when I replayed it 15 times afterwards, which is, even on replay, I’m not sure how the hell he did that. He’s a great leaper, but it didn’t look like he went that high. And so, I’m still don’t get the physics of what he just did, basically. Somehow, he had the ability to corral that ball, slam it back through, even though he was not that high off the ground in the first place.

MITCHELL, asked to rank it among his dunks this season: Rank it? That was my first one really on TV. I’ve had a few like that, but that was pretty cool in the playoffs to be able to do that.

JONAS JEREBKO, Jazz forward: Ah yeah, he’s had some crazy plays this year. If you pull up his highlights this year, he’s had some crazy ones.

CROWDER: To go up and dunk off a tip. That’s a big man thing, and he’s 6-foot-whatever.

Mitchell is listed at 6’3, the same listed height as Russell Westbrook.

ROB MAHONEY, Sports Illustrated NBA writer: It struck me as very Westbrook-ian. That would be the only comparison I could think of. I’m a big fan of surprise dunkers, when they dunk when you least expect it. Westbrook is the king of that, but Mitchell is coming for his crown.

The putback dunk came with the Jazz up only four points. They eventually won by eight.

JEREBKO: We needed it. It was a big part of the game and we really needed it.

The other highlight came when a replay camera caught the media section’s reaction. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon puts his hand over his mouth on the second row to the right, and Salt Lake Tribune’s Tony Jones throws his hands up.

TONY JONES, Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer: I saw Mitchell miss a shot, and then my view was blocked by the cheerleaders standing up, so I only saw an arm and a dunk.

KYLE GOON, Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer: I saw Tim’s and Tony’s reactions, and think I enjoyed those more than the dunk.

TIM MacMAHON, ESPN NBA writer:

JONES: I felt embarrassed seeing my reaction. I grew up in the prim-and-proper newspaper industry, where you’re not supposed to have reactions. I love basketball. I just want everyone to know, if that was James Harden, I would have had that same reaction.

As a fellow journalist but also someone who is allowed to enjoy this sport, I’d like to formally state that while cheering for a team should not happen on press row, reactions to basketball plays as ridiculous as this one are absolutely allowed. We’re all basketball fans, and my own reaction (not caught on camera) was equally emotive.

MAHONEY: I heard people throwing out Vince Carter as a dunking comparison early when Mitchell started to catch on, and this was a perfect example in vivid color.

JEREBKO: It caught everybody by surprise. But I don’t think anything should catch you by surprise with that kid anymore.