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Gareth Bale has had a hard season at Real Madrid. The fans have turned on him, booing and jeering him for months. He has performed well, scoring 16 goals and assisting 6 more in 32 appearances, but “well” has just not been good enough. If any one needed a confidence boost, it was Gareth Bale.
Enter NBA Europe, and it’s Half-Court Challenge.
He destroyed the challenge. Awesome. As we said, if anyone needed to do it, it was him. And, honestly, hitting 3 half-court shots out of 5 is really, really hard. He should be proud. He’s earned it...
…but let’s look at the tape a little more closely. Check out his last shot, specifically the replays at 0:43 and 0:50. They are supposed to be of the same shot, but something is definitely, well, off.
Notice how at 0:43 his arms are up before the ball goes in.
Photo: YouTube
Yet at 0:50, his arms are down as the ball goes in
Photo: YouTube
These are supposed to be the same shot, but obviously they are not.
This is all very confusing, because it seems as if Bale hit 4 shots instead of 5. None of his made shots — the celebration or the shot itself — look the same. Individually, they also all look like legitimate makes. There is footage of each shot in which we see him shoot and make the basket in one take. There could be some CGI magic going on, but this all seems a little too low budget for that.
So, the question must be asked: did Bale really only take 5 shots? We’d guess no.
That confidence boost is just gonna have to wait, Gareth.
