5'7" and Standing Tall Among Giants

Last night’s NBA Slam Dunk contest was amazing! If you haven’t seen it, then you need to go to ESPN and checkout the highlights. Several of the leagues young guns represented: defending champion, Josh Smith (Atlanta), 2006 Rookie / Sophomore Game MVP, Andre Iguodala (Philly), 5’7” jumping machine, Nate Robinson (NYC), and Sir Dunkingstein, Hakim Warrick (Memphis). All contestants were given two dunks. After everyone completed their two dunks, there was a tie between Robinson and Iguodala.

To break the tie there was a dunk off between Robinson and Iguodala. Robinson went first. He started at the 3-point line, hopped, putting the ball between both his legs, then rushing toward the basket, bouncing the ball off the backboard and catching it in mid air and slamming it home. Iguodala followed running from the baseline and putting the ball between his left leg into a reverse dunk. After the totals were tabulated, Robinson won the contested 141 to 140.

Although both of these dunks were amazing, they weren’t the most amazing dunks of the night. First, Iguodala with assistance from Allen Iverson dunked from behind the basket. First, AI stood behind the basket, and bounced the ball on the backside of the backboard. Iguodala running from behind the basket grabbed the ball out the air and need a reverse dunk. Simply amazing – my description doesn’t do it justice – checkout the highlights.

The second amazing dunk was 5'7" Nate Robinson jumping over 5'7" Spud Webb. As fate would have it, Spud Webb won the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest. I guess you could say history repeated itself. I wrote a haku, want to hear it, hear it go:

Lil Nate Robinson,
Dunking the Ball,
Over lil Spud Webb.©