Growing up, I was always told that basketball can take you places you could never imagine and experience things that not everyone is fortunate enough to experience. Life always has crazy twists and turns, but that one specific turn can change your life forever. On December 17, 2017, that turn led me to an unforgettable moment that will stay with me the rest of my life.

Going into my senior year, I realized that this was my last go around of high school and next was the big stage of college. I had to leave it all out on the floor no matter what happened.

My teammates and I always talked in our team group chat or on Twitter every day, and especially before games, and just tried to motivate one another or just chat and make jokes and things of that nature.

On December 16, 2017, my teammate Coleton Landis, who was a junior at the time, mentioned me in a SportsCenter post of a player from Akron St. Vincent St. Mary dunking in game that made #2 on ESPN’s Top 10. Coleton @’d me in the tweet and said, “@Adrian4Nelson, you get a better dunk than this every game.” I replied, “Don’t worry bro, I’ll be on there soon.”

I have a heavily-based Christian family with a lot of faith in God, and I passionately believe He is looking out for me, allowing many miracles to happen in my life. The following day I did not know what was about to happen, but it all made sense later.

Gameday came and we were playing away at one of our rival schools, Groveport Madison of Groveport, Ohio. We knew that we had to treat this game as any other game and come out aggressive from the jump.

In the second quarter, I was guarding the ball and he was trying to come off a ball screen. As this was happening, Coleton proceeded to hedge the ball screen and we trapped for a second, ultimately allowing me to tip the pass to the screener that had popped after setting the ball screen. It was then a loose ball. I leaked out because I knew my teammate, Josiah Fulcher, was right behind me to grab it and I knew I was about to do what I love a lot about basketball, dunking.

Josiah grabbed the ball, threw it up to me and, as I was on the fast break, I attempted to do a cock-back dunk, but I slipped a little. So, I just went for a regular two-handed jam and heard a loud pop.

I looked up and the rim was bent awkwardly, but I didn’t really have any reaction because I didn’t know what to do in that moment. Everyone in the gym was standing up, running around and there was just a lot of commotion going on. The officials ended the game and we had to go to the locker room because the rim was beyond repair.

Video provided courtesy of Ian Ashworth.

We entered the locker room, and everyone was shoving me in excitement, but I still did not fully realize what I had just done. Moments later I checked my phone and it was like I won the lottery or something, because my home screen was blowing up with messages and tweets and everything social media related. It was surreal when I realized what I had just done, but it only got better.

I eventually obtained the video from the person that recorded it, Ian Ashworth, and we both posted it. Thanks to Ian I was all over ESPN as the #4 play in the Top 10 plays. Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, and others also picked it up. The video accumulated a lot of views and gave me a lot of national attention for a while.

I found it crazy. I had been praying to God, asking him to continually bless me and my family every day. Then, I mention something one day to my teammate and the next day it happened. God answered my prayers in a truly unexpected way. I’ve never lost sight of that moment and it will stick with me forever!