Bradley Laubacher #9 of Slashers collides with Darius Clark #7 of Mob at the Cox Pavilion on July 23 in Las Vegas.

Bradley Laubacher’s path to the SlamBall court started nearly two decades before setting foot on the basketball court last week, lined with with trampolines around the hoop.

In the bedroom of his childhood home in Bend that he shared with his older brother, Patrick, the two set up mattresses and hung a nerf basketball hoop on the doorway and began playing their own version of a new sport the two had discovered on Spike TV.

And if they weren’t in their bedroom, they were at their friend, Sam Naffziger’s house using his trampoline to help dunk on a full-sized hoop.

“When it came on we were hooked right away,” said Patrick Laubacher.

It was a sport that took the game of basketball and inserted trampolines near the hoop which brought high-flying and gravity-defying dunks nearly every time up the court. For a pair of kids not yet in high school and unable to dunk naturally, it was easy to be sucked in by the players leaping so high their knees were above the rim.

Fast forward 20 years and Bradley Laubacher is suiting up to play for the Slashers, one of eight teams in the SlamBall league that made its return this month.

“It has been a dream come true,” said Bradley Laubacher.

SlamBall, a sport created in 2000 and debuted on Spike TV in 2002, signed a two-year national broadcast partnership with ESPN for the 2023 and 2024 season and debuted last Friday. Laubacher was the Slashers second-round draft pick.

As a high schooler, Laubacher starred on the basketball court for Summit and cleared 6-foot-10 to claim the 5A high jump title in 2012. He then spent four seasons on the University of Oregon track and field team.

Once he graduated from Oregon, Laubacher returned to his “first love” of basketball, when he played one season for Northwest Christian (now Bushnell University) in Eugene.

So when Laubacher caught wind about a year ago that SlamBall was making a comeback, he reached out wanting to know the process of trying out to get on a team. He put together a video tape with basketball and high jump highlights to show his athleticism.

For months he did not hear back from the league. Then, three weeks before the tryouts, Laubacher got the call telling him to come to Las Vegas.

“I did all that I could to prepare,” Laubacher said. “Lots of time on the trampoline, playing basketball, lifting weights.”

The competition consisted of roughly 90 players, but by the end of the week-long tryout, Laubacher was one of the few remaining to make one of the eight teams to play in the six week-long season.

While it mainly resembles basketball, throwing in the physicality of football and hockey along with trampolines taking up the area inside the 3-point arch, everyone at the tryout was learning the new sport on the fly.

“There are not a lot of official slamball courts in the world,” Laubacher added. “We were all learning together and trying to make a team.

“When you are dribbling you can be hit. You have to reprogram your brain when you are on offense to get used to that contact.” Laubacher said. “It is kinda crazy seeing the people with their knees and feet above the rim. You have to be patient and let the trampoline do the work.”

Last Friday the league premiered at Cox Pavilion — where UNLV and the NBA Summer League games are held — and the event was broadcasted on ESPN.

Each weekend, teams are guaranteed at least two games. Teams can play as many as four games in a weekend depending on if they win or not. The Slasher won one of its three games over the weekend, beating the Lava 67-63, before falling twice to the Mob 62-23 and 51-2.

“It was very exciting to watch,” said Patrick Laubacher. “I think for the first time he became my brother instead of my little brother because I was watching him on TV. He’s 29, has a beard, and was throwing himself against grown men. It was pretty neat to watch.”

Laubacher and the Slashers will return to the court on July 28 when they take on the Rumble. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.

“It is kinda crazy seeing the people with their knees and feet above the rim. You have to be patient and let the trampoline do the work.”

— Bradley Laubacher, Bend