Alex Scales' journey from fleeting NBA fame to trick-shot stardom

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It started with a hoverboard.

Near the height of the popularity of the handleless-riding devices, Alex Scales brought one to the gym for his usual workout. One thing led to another, and a trick-shot series was born.

"I was on a hoverboard messing around at the gym," Scales said. "One of my guys was like, 'I bet you can't make it from there.' So I just shot a 3, and then I made it, and it just caught on from there."

In an effort to keep things fresh at his workouts, Scales turned that one video into Trick Shot Tuesday, a series where he posts new and increasingly impressive trick shots every week on his Instagram account. The shots have enjoyed plenty of viral moments and multiple appearances on the SportsCenter Top 10.

"The one that really caught fire was the one I did the actual push-up on," he said of the video that shows him making a hook shot from half court while doing a push-up off of the basketball. "That was probably one of the hardest ones that I'd done, because of the fitness you need to be able to have to do it."

Scales doesn't have any long-term plans for his trick-shot game, aside from growing his Instagram following (he's currently hovering just above 2,000). Nor does he spend too much time practicing his craft in the gym at Arizona State where he works out. He said he usually comes up with the shot for Trick Shot Tuesday that day and often completes the whole process -- from conception to practice to filming the final product -- in about 30 minutes.

"I had one where I kicked it. I was like, 'You know what, I'm only gonna give it five tries. After these five tries, I'm done,'" Scales said. "Then I made it on the fifth try. It just depends on the difficulty of the shot. Some of the ones that people are like, 'Man, that was crazy, that looked difficult,' I'm like, 'That was one of my easier shots.'"

Those who don't know Scales' background might think it's improbable that he'd be able to complete trick shots with such ease. But he's not just a random person posting trick-shot videos on Instagram. Scales spent 15 years as a professional basketball player and once held an NBA record -- for the shortest career.

Scales, who went undrafted out of Oregon in 2000, made his NBA debut -- and farewell -- on Nov. 19, 2005, for the San Antonio Spurs, playing just 9.2 seconds at the end of a 97-91 win over the Phoenix Suns. He shared the court with future Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, along with ESPN's Bruce Bowen, who had his number retired by the Spurs in 2012.

A week later, Scales was waived and never got another shot at the NBA. San Antonio was his fourth and final stop in the league, after he had preseason stints with the New Jersey Nets, Houston Rockets and Seattle SuperSonics. Scales thought he had his best shot at an NBA breakthrough in Seattle.

"When I was with Seattle, there was a great write-up about me," he said. "This is when Rick Brunson had his first guaranteed contract. They had written in the paper that [the Sonics] had a million-dollar question: Do they keep Rick Brunson or Alex Scales? Ray Allen was quoted in the paper saying, 'Alex Scales is the only one playing like he belongs here.'"

The Sonics cut Scales at the end of the preseason, and then he was picked up two weeks later by the Spurs. It was the third time in his career that he thought he'd done everything he needed to do in the preseason to make the roster, only to end up on the wrong end of the waiver wire.

"It was just a sad situation to see a guy who did everything he was supposed to do, was productive when he got in the game, to not get an opportunity," he said. "Because I felt like if I would have gotten that opportunity, I would've been something special."

With the NBA door closed to him, Scales went to the D-League and eventually back to Europe, where he'd started his professional career in 2000 in Italy. Scales last played professionally for Tadamon Zouk in Lebanon, the culmination of a 15-year career that saw him also make stops in China, Argentina, South Korea, Spain, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Puerto Rico. When he was in China, he had his most memorable experience of culture shock.

"I wanted some shrimp, so they come out, they bring me some shrimp," he said. "It's got the eyes, the legs -- I'm like, 'Man, what is this? I'm not used to this shrimp!'"

Scales first played in China in 2001-02, before Yao Ming came over to the NBA, and again two seasons later, when the NBA boom was just beginning in the country. He said it's been impressive to watch how much the game has grown in China, but he does regret one aspect of that.

"The pay [in China] is 18,000 times more than what it was then," Scales said. "I tell people now that I grew up in the wrong era."

Now 38, Scales knows the window is closing on his basketball career, but he's trying to keep it open as long as possible and says he'll listen to any team that calls to inquire about his services. But until then, he'll keep making trick-shot videos every Tuesday, and he hopes they can entertain and motivate people.

"If something comes up out of it, it'd be great, but at the same time, I like doing it to see people's reactions," he said. "People are like, 'I could never do anything like that.' But I always emphasize that practice makes perfect, so there's always something you're capable of doing if you put your mind to it. So that's why I go about it."