Bring your game, not your name.
The phrase might as well be summer league basketball scripture.
However, in some instances, it’s okay to bring both.
Blue Magic’s Brandon “Bodybag” Moss did just that on Friday night at The Rumph Classic, scoring a game-high 27 points in his team’s 78-66 win over DevelopNow.
“(I want to) win the championship and get my name out there,” Moss said. “Let people know if Bodybag is on your team, it’s a real dub. If you want to win, put Body in.”
There might not be a louder way to score 27 points in a game than his style of throwing down hammer dunks all game long.
Whether it was a ferocious two-handed flush or a soaring transition slam, Moss’s game brought another level of energy into the building.
The same thing he hopes to bring his teammates.
“I like to get my team energy, because I got enough energy to spare everybody in here,” Moss said. “I like to get out to a good start, get my team going. And when they get their legs going, I just sit back and support.”
Moss has built his own hoops legend as the guy who shows up and posterizes your favorite player at your favorite event. A regular on BallIsLife and plenty of other hoops mixtape accounts, Bodybag is both his name and his game.
He’ll take an alley oop off the backboard, shake the rim and then turn around with a pearly grin.
Try to stop him at your own risk.
Or, in some instances, play on his team at your own risk.
In one instance on Friday night, Moss went airborne for a putback dunk and victimized teammate Marcus Bell in the process.
“We’ve been playing together a long time, that ain’t his first time today,” Moss said of rising up over Bell. “We do everything across the world together. I always got my boy with me, it’s been four years now.”
Tournament emcee GheeFunny egged Moss on with the notion that there would be a mixtape of his dunks out by halftime with the number of different ways he found to jam it in the first half.
With so many photographers on hand and his 18 first-half points that largely came off of dunks, the reality wasn’t so far fetched.
It’s something that crowds across the country have grown accustomed to watching with Moss.
“Everybody knows the famous windmill,” Moss said. “I think I gave it to them in this game. For me, I like the go-to bucket. If it’s a two hand, it’s a two hand dunk. If it’s a putback dunk, it’s a putback dunk. I just gotta make sure it’s guaranteed.”
No matter how deep he chose to reach into his bag, he had an ecstatic crowd behind him.
A tenured veteran of the summer hoops circuit, he knows a great crowd when he sees one and compares the energy in the gym to another one of his usual stops.
“I like it,” Moss said with a grin. “I play in the Drew League and it’s like that…I’m liking how everyone is showing up and supporting the tournament.”
The end goal?
Make sure they remember who Bodybag Moss is.
