Giving love to probably the greatest assist of all time

For those that don’t follow basketball in the US, there’s a legendary phrase coined by Grant Napear, the Sacramento Kings TV announcer: “If you don’t like that, you don’t like NBA basketball.” Roared into the mic with all the gusto of Big John ordering a takeaway, Napear would unload his trademark remark every time a Kings player made a brilliant play. Between 1998 and 2001, Napear nearly wore his phrase out watching Jason “White Chocolate” Williams – a small, harmless-looking six-footer out of a tiny West Virginia town with a heavy drawl – who had happened to have one of the biggest bags (skill-sets for you association football folks) in the game. But rather than hitting three-pointers or dunks, Williams was a master of something different. Assists were his business, and business was booming. Buttery bounce passes, alley-oops, behind-the-back, off-the-elbow, through-your-legs, what-the-heck-was-that dimes for his teammates, Williams had no equal. You don’t have to like NBA basketball to appreciate what is going on here.

Williams may not have been the best NBA point-guard but in terms of bums-off-seats, jaw-dropping excitement, he is a Hall of Famer. The NBA equivalent of Adel Taarabt, but with the aesthetic of Jay Spearing. The streets will simply never fail to recall. From white chocolate to white shirts, Williams had quite a different vibe to the follically-blessed José María Gutiérrez, better known as former Real Madrid footballer Guti, but both athletes shared something in common: a love of assists. Ostentatious acts performed under the guise of selflessness. A gift or a curse depending on what colour shirt you are wearing. For both Williams and Guti, their shared magnum opus was the no-look assist; 15 years and one day ago, the Spaniard blessed us with his greatest ever.

Deportivo La Coruña v Real Madrid in January 2010 was not a game for tricks and flicks. The visitors hadn’t won at the Riazor in 19 years and trailed Barcelona by eight points in the title race, with Marca previewing the match as “a Game of Life or Death”. Yet, despite being just 1-0 up, Guti delivered an assist so disrespectful that late Spanish journalist David Gistau described his backheel as having “the disdain of someone treading on a hamster”. After a swift Madrid counter-attack, Kaká had put Guti through on goal. But rather than finish simply past Deportivo’s goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia, the Spaniard beautifully backheeled the ball for Karim Benzema, a teammate initially so semi-detached from proceedings he may as well have been sold on Rightmove.

Watch the goal back and it is scarcely believable that this wasn’t just a kick around in the park with Guti’s mates. How on earth did Guti even know Benzema was vaguely available, unless there was a large mirror nestled behind Aranzubia’s goal? To have the audacity, the chutzpah, to even try a backheel pass at full pelt in that situation is ridiculous. Either that, or Guti was so desperate to avoid using his weaker right foot to shoot that he was willing to risk it all. Forget the why, or the how. Just enjoy probably the greatest assist of all time. Here’s to Guti, here’s to Jason Williams and here’s to the very concept of being silly, a criminally-underrated trio devoted to having fun even when they are not supposed to.

“So disappointed to find out tonight that people at the club are briefing journalists against me if I am to sign at a club before the window shuts. They’ve called reporters to assassinate my character and tried to plant negative stories about me in the football media” – England winger Chloe Kelly hits out at Manchester City after completing a loan move to Arsenal until the end of the season. And very much presumably not back to City after that.

Multiple football matches all kicking off at the same time in Europe this week? Whatever will they think of next? I hope the various football correspondents won’t all collapse in confusion at 3pm this Saturday. The final day of the season must be an absolute nightmare for the poor dears” – Tim Eveleigh.

Arguably the most satisfying thing about the Bigger Vase group phase was that the Nice guys did not finish last” – Peter Oh.

Max Maxwell winning letter o’ the day for his Shakespeare riffs (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Rewarding such shenanigans sets a dangerous precedent. Max should be Bard” – Antony Train.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Antony Train, who wins our final copy of Football And How To Survive It by Pat Nevin. You can buy it from Big Website’s bookshop. View terms and conditions for our competitions here. 

Manchester City’s Bigger Cup playoff will be against … drum roll … Real Madrid. And Celtic will face Bayern. “It’s tough playing against [them], the problem is in the middle playing Newcastle,” parped Pep Guardiola before adding a big dollop of sarcasm to his spoon. “They are always so kind with the calendar, for many years it always happened that way.”

La Liga president Javier Tebas fears football can’t afford to overlook the threat posed by A22, whose latest proposal for a €uropean $uper £eague was unveiled in December. “It’s not a serious project at all,” he sniffed. “What they’re looking for is to generate instability and uncertainty in European football.”

Marcus Rashford has his heart set on a loan to Barcelona, but a deal will go through only if the Catalans can ship out two players.

Chelsea have started their engines and entered the race for Evan Ferguson.

If you’re expecting new pre-deadline signings at Newcastle, don’t hold your breath. “As things stand I expect the squad to stay the same after the transfer window closes,” sighed Eddie Howe. “[Miguel Almirón’s] departure leaves us a little bit short in the position he played, and attacking areas generally.”

And Paulo Fonseca is the new head coach at lowly Lyon after Pierre Sage’s sacking. “This choice, taken unanimously by [president] John Textor and the entire sports management, is part of the desire to give Lyon a strong ambition, both on the national and European scene,” whooped the club.

Rangers have snuck their way into the eighth and final direct last-16 place after a nervy 2-1 win over Union Saint-Gilloise at Ibrox. “If you look at all the teams that finished behind us, there are really massive clubs with massive budgets,” whooped boss Philippe Clement. Elsewhere, Tottenham have done a win, courtesy of their tyros. Seventeen-year-old Mikey Moore broke Jimmy Greaves’s 67-year-old record as the youngest English scorer in a major European competition as they beat Elfsborg 3-0 to finish fourth. And Manchester United are returning from Bucharest with a 2-0 triumph over FSCB, leaving them one place in front of Spurs. Table-toppers after the group stage? Lazio.

Big Website’s bookshop also has a host of great new tomes just waiting to be added to your online basket. There’s Smart Money: the Fall and Rise of Brentford FC by Alex Duff, David Squires’ latest brilliant collection of cartoons: Chaos in the Box and much more besides. Get shopping!

Read ‘em and weep: it’s 10 Premier League talking points.

The women’s transfer window has already slammed shut, baby. January featured a world-record move but who did perfect business and whose dealings are rated as two out of 10? Here’s Tom Garry with some answers.

Transfer interactives: all the latest men’s and women’s moves covered.

João Félix just wants to be happy. Who will give him a home? Read Friday’s Rumour Mill to find out.

John Brewin explains how Bournemouth became the Premier League’s latest model club, despite having the smallest stadium in the division.

Steven Gerrard has done one from Al-Ettifaq with relegation fears in the Saudi air. John Duerden has more.

Only Mo Salah (13), Bukayo Saka (10) and Antonee Robinson (nine) have set up more goals than Jacob Murphy in the Premier League this season. Ben McAleer looks at how the Newcastle winger went from bit-part to must-start.

And it’s quiz time! This week’s questions feature unbeaten teams, Keira Knightley playing footy and Abdukodir Khusanov.

John Charles rises above his marker and the snow at San Siro to score for Juventus against Inter in an undated photograph. Charles, dubbed Il Gigante Buono (The Gentle Giant) by Juve fans, scored 95 goals over five seasons, in which he won the Scudetto three times and the Coppa Italia twice. While there, Charles never collected a booking and was beloved by supporters. “When we were at Juve, the two most important people for most fans were the Pope and Il Gigante,” recalled teammate Omar Sívori. “For the 40% who were communist, it was Stalin and Il Gigante.”