A chaotic 2023 has seen at least two positive developments in sports.
One is the continued rise of Travis Hunter, Colorado's wide receiver-cornerback extraordinaire. The Buffaloes star’s stock is sky-high after he burned No. 17 TCU for 119 receiving yards and an interception in his season opener.
Two is the TikTok-aided proliferation of sports highlight reels set to unconventional, counterintuitive music, such as Seahawks wide receiver Paul Richardson balling to Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” or Browns running back Nick Chubb bowling over opponents to boygenius’s “Not Strong Enough.”
On Wednesday night, these two developments came together to make magic.
TikTok user goatkd posted a video of Hunter dominating on the basketball court in Boulder, accompanied by “Pearls” from Sade’s 1992 quadruple-platinum smash Love Deluxe.
@goatkd Travis Hunter Basketball Mixtape😂🔥 #fyp #travishunter #nfl #viral
♬ original sound - goatkd
“I was born a basketball player,” Hunter says at the top of the minute-long video, which quickly went viral on its original platform and others.
Hunter, who played basketball at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga. in addition to being a football star, suggested he might try basketball at Jackson State in Jan. 2022, although nothing ever came to fruition before his eventual transfer.
