Unreal Dunk

VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#5
#5
Here's a link to the story about it:

http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=2e8cd28672dc40e3

A new all-time favorite

By Joshua Buckley
The Daily News

Published June 30, 2006

Any basketball fan can remember his favorite dunk of all-time.

For some, it’s Michael Jordan taking off from the free-throw line. Others prefer the old-school Doctor J one-handed thunder slam.

For me, the dunk that has always stood out in my mind was Vince Carter’s “It’s Over” dunk in the 2000 slam dunk contest, when he bounced the ball off the ground, brought it through his legs in midair and slammed it.

It was my favorite dunk — that is, until Wednesday night.

When I heard that Hitchcock native T.J. Fontenette, a.k.a The Air Up There, and the rest of the AND 1 Mix Tape Tour were coming to town, I knew I had to be in attendance.

Streetball is a type of basketball with more concentration on dribbling skills and high-flying dunks as opposed to zone defenses and mid-range jumpshots.

The AND 1 Tour is basically a traveling streetball team, taking on teams of local streetballers from around the world. They are said to be the best basketball players in the country that don’t play for the NBA.

I’ve been a fan of the Mix Tape Tour since Season 4, which was broadcast on ESPN2. That was the first season the team played in indoor arenas and featured the open-run, a contest to allow one streetballer to earn a permanent spot on the AND 1 bus next season.

Anyone familiar with the show remembers Season 4 as the year Grayson “The Professor” Boucher, a 17-year-old white kid from Portland, Ore., won the contest and became one of the most recognizable names in streetball.

Needless to say, I was extremely excited to see the show Wednesday night.

The show was about what I expected. There were plenty of crowd-thrilling dunks, some sharp dribbling moves by Silk and AO and so-entertaining commentary from Tango, the emcee on the court.

But there were also a lot of turnovers and missed shots from the local streetballers, as they tried a lot of crazy moves to get noticed by the AND 1 squad.

What I didn’t realize about the Mix Tape Tour is how physical the games were. The local players weren’t in the mood to get dunked on every time down the court, so they’d push the AND 1 players while in the air, or hold them to prevent any fancy crossovers. You don’t see that part of the game on the TV show.

Since there are no foul shots in streetball, the AND 1 players just had to shake the heavy fouls off. Their patience impressed me.

One thing was obvious throughout the entire game — Fontenette came to entertain. All 24 of his points came on slam dunks, many of the jaw-dropping variety.

The best, however, came with time winding down at the end of the game.

After grabbing a rebound, “The Main Event” fired a long pass down to a wide-open Fontenette. After taking a few stutter steps, Fontenette jumped into the air, did two complete 360-degree turns and slammed the ball.

I was stunned. The crowd was speechless. Even the players on the court didn’t know how to react.

“I’ve been planning that dunk for two years,” Fontenette said, unable to wipe the smile off his face. “That was the first time I had ever done it on a 10-foot goal. I’ve done it on a 9-and-a-half before, but never a 10-foot.”

Was that dunk even humanly possible? Apparently so.

Once everyone realized what had just happened, the AND 1 players lifted Fontenette onto their shoulders as he flashed a “Hook ’em Horns” sign.

Fontenette has complained in a recent AND 1 commercial that people have been claiming his 360-degree between-the-legs dunk as their own.

“Everyone has been saying that dunk is theirs, but I’d been doing it since high school,” he said. “So I had to do a dunk I knew hadn’t been done before.”

Until Wednesday night, I thought a 720-degree dunk was a move reserved for over-the-top video games. I stand corrected.

+++

Joshua Buckley is the sports editor for The Daily News. He can be reached at 409-683-5224 or joshua.buckley(at)galvnews.com.
Click to expand...
 
Packt

Packt

Starter
#10
#10
I'm not impressed. Give me Carter on Zo, Kobe on Howard, heck, Reef on Zo..
the list goes on... Bibby to Webber against the Lakers after the knee injury...

Call me an elitist, but the And 1 stuff doesn’t wow me much. The soft twirling stuff especially... I like the hard stuff in the face of a defender, or an unexpected catch-n-dunk, momentum infused dunks... they are the ones that do it for me.
 
Bricklayer

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#11
#11
Eh, And1 is pretty much garbage stuff for guys who don't actually understand the sport. And yes I would take a power throwdown over a defender any day of the week -- how about Gerald's explosion in preseason for us a few years back over Nachbar BTW?

That said, hard not to be impressed with the straight out technical aspects of that dunk. Its not really basketball, but that's still something I'm not sure I've seen before.
 
R

Rome

Guest
#12
#12
Wow thats pretty amazing. A 360 degree dunk it self is hard to begin with and now a 720 degree dunk? :confused::eek:
 
bdouble013

bdouble013

Bench
#18
#18
I don't think And1 ball is pure basketball in any form. Its the Harlem Globetrotters 2000 style. That being said, defense or not, that dunk is amazing. Twice around before dunking on a 10 foot rim? Thats ridiculous.
 
¿¿¿

¿¿¿

G-League
#19
#19
Packt said:
I'm not impressed. Give me Carter on Zo, Kobe on Howard, heck, Reef on Zo..
the list goes on... Bibby to Webber against the Lakers after the knee injury...

Call me an elitist, but the And 1 stuff doesn’t wow me much. The soft twirling stuff especially... I like the hard stuff in the face of a defender, or an unexpected catch-n-dunk, momentum infused dunks... they are the ones that do it for me.
Click to expand...
quit sippin on that haterade and congratulate the fellow, would ya?
 
RoyalDiva

RoyalDiva

Starter
#20
#20
bdouble013 said:
I don't think And1 ball is pure basketball in any form. Its the Harlem Globetrotters 2000 style. That being said, defense or not, that dunk is amazing. Twice around before dunking on a 10 foot rim? Thats ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Agree with you. Dunking and other stuff like that is just show-off moves, not basketball. I'm just an old-school basketball purist who is impressed with solidly-executed fundamentals, not flashy stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.