Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com put together a list of the best photos from the 2012-13 basketball season. Mason Plumlee is on the list - we'd seen the photo before, with Aaron Craft trying his best to get a shot off with Plumlee's arm a rather significant challenge.
But that's not the one that amazed us. The greatest photo on this list is right up there with Oscar Robertson's remarkable mid-air split or the Sidney Moncrief SI cover, or this classic shot of Kareem (then Lew Alcindor) which demonstrates as clearly as anything could just how hard it must've been to play against the man.
It's not too far from this David Thompson vs. UCLA shot although it doesn't quite touch the magnificence of the Christian Laettner shot against Kentucky.
It's this shot. It's from the Syracuse-San Diego State game played this past fall on the USS Midway. Chase Tapley is getting ready to shoot, and all 10 players are silhouetted (on second glance, it appears to be nine), and the action is converging on him. Even the shadows are superb. It's a brilliant photo. It looks like something out of the '40s but it also captures, in a way, the spirit of the playground. If you've ever perused the archive Life Magazine posted online, there are some basketball shots somewhat like this.
Here's the whole list. The shot of Plumlee really is magnificent. You can see just how much time he's spent in the weight room. The look on Craft's face is pretty classic as well. He's in a fix and he knows it.