Recently in college basketball there has been a horrible trend developing. White dunkers are failing to land on their feet after dunks. With the NCAA tournament starting in less than 3 hours, fingers around the nation are crossed for our pasty paladins of the hardwood. Observe our first case, Wyoming's Adam Waddell:
What did this young man think? He had just found the morphing ball on Metroid or something? Waddell was ok and kept playing.
Next we have Kristoff Ongenaet from Syracuse. With a name like Kristoff you know there could be problems, but to be fair he is probably the best dunker named Kristoff in history and his team had just played in 7 overtimes to get into this game against Louisville.
You have to love how the trainers need to be waived in by Jim Boeheim. A white dude just hit the floor on a dunk, grab a towel and run your ass down there! Fortunately Ongenaet returned to the game, he is afterall from the mean streets of Ghent.
These two young caucasians were able to escape without injury, but next time, the pale rider to the rim may not be so lucky. Right now we do not know a solution; some say it is to force them to do what they do best and play fundamental basketball and simply lay the ball up, but others argue that would take away their rights of freedom and expression. We are going to see a lot of dunkers with marshmallow complextions in the next couple of weeks and we should all be holding our breath when they reach for the rim.
Thursday, March 19
White Guy Dunking Epidemic
Tuesday, February 10
Sometimes You Forget: The Baron Davis Dunk
Last night the Charlotte Bobcats dispatched of the Clippers and their intrepid point guard Baron Davis 94-73. Sometimes I do forget that the Beard Baron was once a member of the Charlotte Hornets. Catfish and I were privileged enough to be at this game where Davis had one of the best dunks I have ever seen in person on then Minnesota Timberwolf Kevin Garnett. Perhaps this is where KG got his anything is possible inspiration. One of the greatest parts of this event was that there was a group of Minnesota fans a few rows ahead of us and they were making quite a scene about how great they were and how legendary KG was. After this dunk though, they resigned themselves to solemn clapping when the T-Wolves did anything positive.
The video footage is below and although it is fuzzier than the Zapruder film, you get the feel for the dunk. Anything relating to the Charlotte Hornets always brings back the memories from that special little place inside like seeing the old Coliseum and the bee trail flowing out from center court. Throw it down, Baron, throw it down.
Friday, January 23
Tale of the Tube: LeBron vs. Dominique
Last week as we watched LeBron do his thing on the court against New Orleans, Xtra Medium and I entered into a debate after LeBron threw one down. While there is no doubt Bron Bron is operating now on a level all by himself, I contended that a man from my youth, Dominique Wilkins was the superior dunker. This was not to say that James cannot throw it down as well as just about anyone, but in my recollection Nique was as graceful yet violent dunker the league had seen. This was without having reviewed any footage, it was just off memory of what I saw as a kid and the Super Slam of the NBA tape I had watched more times than I could count. In my opinion at that time, there was no question it was Wilkins, the man who graced the back of my bedroom door on a poster I received inside a Kudos box. Man, I used to love me some Kudos. However, after viewing extensive footage of both dunkers, it is truly a close call. Since we have to take out dunk contests since LeBron it appears will never do one, the incredible Nique contest footage will have to be eliminated from consideration.
Let's look at the vitals before we go to the You Tube tape.
LeBron--------------------------------------------------------Dominique
The King/King James-----Nickname-----The Human Highlight Reel
Akron, Ohio-------------Birthplace---------------Paris, France
6'8"-------------------------Height--------------------------6'8"
250(more like 260-270)----------Weight------------------ 230
23---------------------Jersey Number-----------------------21
Cavs(until 2010?)-------------Main Team-------------------Hawks
Lost in the Finals------Furtherst Playoff progression-----Lost in Eastern Semis
2008-----------------League Scoring Champion----------------1986
Cockback Tomahawk---------------Signature Dunk-----------------Windmill
Kobe-------------------Biggest Rival------------------------Michael
43------------Points in a losing Game 7 to Celtics-------------47
Now we turn to the true tale of the tube. There are various videos displaying the fantastic dunks of both players, but in the interest of balance I chose the NBA TV top ten for each. There are some left off of Nique's catalog which include the one-handed putback from the Super Slam's video which made Tim Hardaway say, "You see that, you be like Gawd!" and the one-handed alley-oop where he rose over the defender but it does show what he brought to the table. Also intersting is that Lebron's top ten has two instances of players trying to take a charge or unwilling to go up and challenge the shot, there certainly was more willingness for players to go for the block 20 years ago as opposed to today where players are more afraid of getting "posterized" or showing up on the bad end of a Sportscenter highlight than contest a shot.
Bron Bron has some great dunks though, and some I had either only seen once or twice or had forgotten about including a throwdown on Rasheed. It is amazing that some of their dunks do look incredibly similar. Wilkins to me gets the edge by the slimmest of margins and his facial served up on Larry Byrd is priceless.
First we have LeBron's top ten:
Here is Dominique's:
Tough call, feel free to give us your opinion.
