Mr. 1,500 is no more. Now, he’s Mr. 2,000.
“Who's ready to rock?” Toledo High School senior Chris Harvey, 17, shouted in front of the roughly 200 students Thursday afternoon who gathered to watch him. “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!”
The crowd watched as Harvey sank his 2,000th shot from the half-court line. For Harvey, the shot was nearly two years in the making. His attempts began during physical education class.
School Principal Martin Huffman said the school has kept track of Harvey’s shots. The school also kept a counter on the reader board outside of the school.
“We celebrated him at 500, and we thought that was quite a deal,” Huffman said.
There was some question about whether Harvey would reach the milestone during the school’s homecoming week this week, but after he made more than 30 shots on Wednesday, he entered Thursday at 1,999.
Appropriately, he entered the darkened gym to Prince’s “1999” playing on the stereo system as a strobe light followed him as he took a lap around the crowd. He took a few warm up shots from increasingly longer distances before it was time for the main event.
With each attempt, the crowd clapped along with nervous excitement, and with the misses, exhaled.
But then, Harvey joined the elusive 2,000 club.
“It was amazing, man,” Harvey said following the basket. “Nothing but net.”
Harvey said he was a little nervous, but that went away as he began the attempt.
"I have the strength to do it," he said.
After making the shot, Harvey again took a lap in front of the crowd before he was presented with a new medal and shirt commemorating his accomplishment.
“Half-court shots,” the shirt reads. “2,000 Chris!”
During the 2022-2023 school year, Harvey banked 1,787 half-court shots, a fact the crowd applauded when Harvey took to the mic before his shot. Last year, on the final day of school, he made more than 70.
For comparison, ESPN estimates the odds of making a half-court shot to be about 1%. Between the 2000 and 2016 seasons, players in the National Basketball Association attempted 6,255 shots from half-court and made 165 of them, a success rate of 2.64%. Jamal Crawford and Steph Curry are tied for the most half-court shots during regulation in NBA history at six.
“2,000 half-court shots,” Huffman said on the mic following the successful basket. “Never been done in a high school in the history of the universe."
But it’s more than just basketball. After the crowd dispersed from the gym, Harvey took to a drum set near the school band and began to battle another drummer in a duel. It’s a hobby his parents said he only began last year, though an outsider couldn't tell.
Huffman said as part of homecoming week, the school is holding a drum battle with Harvey in an upcoming pep assembly.
