Leandro Barbosa May Have Been A Wee Bit Premature In Celebrating A Jared Dudley 3-Pointer

Just want to be as confident as Leandro Barbosa someday □□pic.twitter.com/XzIdDZfORp

— Athlete Dream (@Athlete_Dream_) March 3, 2017

Selflessness. It's a fine art that's mastered by only the most humble of teammates, and - dare I say it - that basically makes Leandro Barbosa the athletic equivalent of Picasso. You see, some may think he was trying to celebrate an ordinary assist to a wide open shooter and make it all about himself.  Others may say he was trying to show up his opponent in a game that was already well in doubt. Personally? I think it's pretty obvious that he was just trying to take pressure off his power forward who was taking a shot that - statistically - had a better chance of glancing off the rim than going through it. He risked being seen as the headline just so he could absorb the punchline, and boy did it pay off! 

Can you even imagine the amount of flak Jared Dudley would be taking today if his backup shooting guard's "hey, look at me!" gesture didn't draw the eyes of everyone in the building?! We would probably be killing him for harmlessly clanking a meaningful trey off the side of the rim with four and half minutes to go in a blowout between two teams that the casual observer could care less about. Instead we are talking about how goddamn silly Leandro Barbosa looks for completely ignoring the game to reenact the final landing of the most stellar of gymnastics routines, and that's what makes him truly altruistic!