/ STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES – Jake Russell remembered leading a fast break.
It was sometime in the summer of 2013. Russell, a walk-on wide receiver at USC, then played on the boys basketball team at San Clemente High. As he approached the basket during the summer-league contest, he noticed Sam Darnold trailing him. An idea sprang up.
“I threw a pass behind my head toward him,” Russell said, “and he caught it and dunked on some kid. It was kind of insane.”
Darnold, who was a rising junior at the time, never had dunked.