LOS ANGELES — Noah Williams mimed the dunk a few days later, cycling an invisible ball between his legs, eyes still wide.
"He's not from here," the Chatsworth Sierra Canyon junior said of senior teammate Bronny James, shaking his head. "He's something different."
James had flipped a switch in the third quarter of a win over West Hills Chaminade on Jan. 6, capping a 12-point stretch in the span of three minutes with a roof-rocking tomahawk jam. So when he forced a fourth-quarter steal and visibly down-shifted into sport mode, a crowded Sierra Canyon gym held its breath.