Nate Robinson steals a jump ball in a new, novel, and totally illegal way (Video)

It’s a cloudy, cool and cruel weekend, this last one of the NBA’s regular season. On Friday we learned that former Chicago MVP Derrick Rose is just about a lock to sit out the entire 2012-13 season, and late Friday night we watched as one of the greatest to ever play the game went down with what could prove to be a career-altering Achilles injury. Some lightness is needed. Badly.

Luckily, as is often the case, Nate Robinson is on it. Watch his novel and very illegal play to a steal a tip from Friday night’s Chicago loss to the Toronto Raptors:

(I think my favorite part would be Matt Devlin’s completely humorless response. Lighten up, guy.)

Again, that’s illegal. You take possession of the ball if you’re amongst the two players tipping for it, even if the ball’s already been tipped. It’s probably a silly rule, and jump balls are often poorly tossed and not usually the best of determining possession (not that I’m in favor of a NCAA-styled possession arrow, but still …), but rules are rules. As Tiger Woods found out on Saturday when he was hit with a massive and stunning entire two-stroke penalty for breaking the rules in Augusta.

A night after dropping 35 points in an overtime win on Thursday, ticking Steve Novak off in the process, Robinson scored 17 points off the bench in the loss. Thanks to Tas Melas for the heads-up on this particular play.