HOT CORNER

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What: SlamBall

When: Saturdays at 8 p.m.

TV: TNN

This is not what Dr. James Naismith had in mind.

The inventor of basketball did not dress his players in pads and instruct them to body-check one another into boards surrounding the court. He did not live long enough to see the 360-degree dunk.

Surely he never imagined SlamBall.

In this new version of the sport--part hoops, part X-Games--trampolines are built into the floor under each basket so offensive players can launch themselves twisting and spinning above the rim. On defense, a man called the “stopper� is allowed to goaltend and/or smack his opponent out of the way, anything to prevent a dunk.

“It’s really a hybrid,� Mike Tollin said. “It looks like hockey.... It’s like football.... There are some gymnastics.�

Tollin and his partner, Brian Robbins, both avid sports fans, are the producers of the HBO series “Arliss� and the baseball movie “Hardball,� as well as more conventional entertainment such as the WB Network’s “Smallville.� In this case, they have developed an idea brought to them by a former office intern, Mason Gordon.

“He comes in with this diagram on a napkin,� Tollin said. “Trampolines, basketball, full contact. We laughed.�

Gordon persisted and the resulting made-for-television tournament will air Saturday nights on TNN. Former Philadelphia 76er president Pat Croce has signed on as an advisor and there are plans for a full-fledged league as well as SlamBall venues in parks nationwide. Tollin knows that purists might cringe.

“We want those people who are scratching their heads,� he said. “It’s important for us to prove we’re a real sport.�