Mob Caps Perfect 18-0 SlamBall Season With Championship Win

The Mob did not just win SlamBall’s championship. They finished the league’s comeback season as the first undefeated team in SlamBall history, capping an 18-0 run with a 72-42 blowout of the Slashers in front of a sold-out crowd at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.

The title game followed a familiar script. The Mob blasted out to an 18-2 lead, owned a 42-21 halftime cushion and never gave the Slashers a way back in. Darius Clark powered the offense with 23 points on 8-of-9 attacks at the rim, while Gage Smith, Cameron Horton and Justin Holloway each added 12. Tony Crosby II and Alonzo Scott Jr. scored 13 apiece for the Slashers, but the Mob’s pace, pressure and depth made the final feel settled long before the closing whistle.

That same separation showed up two nights earlier in the semifinals, when the Mob handled the Lava 49-36 to reach the championship game. Across the two playoff wins, Clark scored 45 points and took home Playoffs Most Valuable Player honors, a fitting finish for the season’s most explosive scorer when the stakes were highest. Smith, meanwhile, supplied the kind of all-court impact that defined the Mob all summer: 12 points, 10 stops and 16 loose-ball recoveries in the championship stretch, while helping force 41 turnovers.

The numbers behind the run explain why the Mob felt untouchable from start to finish. They won every game by at least 13 points, pushed 10 victories to 30 points or more and finished two by 40 or more. Their regular-season finale against the Gryphons was a 88-point outburst, the league’s highest total of the year, and the Mob led SlamBall in points per game, points allowed, scoring differential, field-goal percentage, dunks per game, offensive Face Off percentage, assists per game and stops per game.

The title also confirmed the Mob as SlamBall’s standard-bearer in the modern era. Their 2023 championship made them the only franchise with multiple SlamBall titles, adding to previous crowns in 2012, 2016 and now 2023. The trophy, named the Gordon/Tollin Trophy for co-founders Mason Gordon and Mike Tollin, ended a relaunch season that opened June 5 with training camp for 24 players and gained national exposure through a two-year ESPN broadcast partnership.

Gage Smith was named Series 6 MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, Brendan Kirsch took Coach of the Year and Cam Hollins won 5th Man of the Year, but the larger story was the way it all fit together. The Mob had the top-end talent, the rotation depth and the system discipline to dominate every week, then proved it one last time in Las Vegas with a title game that looked more like a statement than a contest.