The most deceptive thing about watching the NBA is the way, from time to time, it makes everyone seem totally incompetent. We know that all these guys can make shot after shot when they're all alone, but there's enough cognitive dissonance to convince ourselves that, say, despite the threat of a 6'9 small forward closing out and smashing the ball into your chest cavity, you probably could have hit that openish shot that some player on your favorite team just bozoed off the the side of the backboard.

That's why these preposterous shots are so interesting. By every measure, they're incredibly lucky shots. But at the same time, they require so much strength, balance, skill, and spatial awareness that you remember to be impressed. It's the kind of sensation that a Steph Curry 30-footer usually inspires, awe in the absence of something physically impossible like LeBron, and that which, if you're on the receiving end of one, you can't even be mad.