Above: Clap your hands if you believe, Cleveland. Photo credit: Nike, possibly?

I’m not sure who took this precise photo, but there are actually hundreds of similar pictures out there. They all capture a moment during LeBron’s famous “chalk clap,” a ritual he has revisited night after night since the days he played on his high school’s court.

For those unfamiliar with the tradition, each night LeBron will smear chalk over his hands while facing an audience of breathless Cavs fans. It’s not so he may grip the basketball better, as most players will do, but rather out of an unexplained commitment to habit. He then flings his hands wildly over his head, in this strangely joyous gesture, as if he is releasing all his closeted anxiety. As the cloud of chalk billows out and settles over him like a dusting of snow, he draws his hands back into his chest and slams his palms together. Then he blows on each hand—one powerful puff for each fist.

Although Michael Jordan as well as Kevin Garnett (in tribute to MJ) both had their own chalky customs, LeBron added his own twist to it with the toss.

It’s one of the most peculiar displays of OCD behavior, and yet we sit in rapt attention as if he is christening himself with fairy dust. As if this is what makes him fly through the air—what makes the ball sail from his hand from impossible distances into the net.

Clevelanders are so enthralled with our hero’s fabled formality that they will routinely imitate it with confetti at games.

     Above: Fans at Christmas imitate LeBron during his “chalk clap” by using confetti. Photo credit: David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images