When I was a kid, watching the NBA, I had two favorite players (well, besides everyone on the Celtics). The first, as one or two of you may remember, was Isiah Thomas. The other, Spud Webb. Why? It’s simple. As a kid who couldn’t even dream of being six feet tall, I liked them because they were shorter than your average basketball player.
One of my favorite moments of 80’s NBA, in fact, was when, in the 1986 slam-drunk competition, Spud Webb, all 5-foot, 7-inches of him, took home the trophy. According to Wikipedia, Spud’s assortment of dunks that night contained “the elevator two-handed double pump dunk, the one-handed off the backboard jam, a 360 degree helicopter one-handed dunk, a 180 degree reverse double-pump slam, and his final masterpiece, the 180 degree reverse two-handed jam from a lob bounce off the floor. He made history that day not only because of his size, but also because he won by defeating [defending champion, Dominique] Wilkins with two perfect scores in the final round.” Just a fantastic night to be a short kid, I’ll tell you that much.
And now, short kids of today’s generation have their own little slam-dunking superstar to look up to. Standing at a whopping 5-foot, 9-inches, Nate Robinson, of the New York Knickerbockers (a team which is, apparently, being horrendously managed by an older and more annoying Isiah Thomas), surprised everyone by walking away from this weekend’s Slam Dunk competition with the trophy in tiny little hands. There’s a bit of a controversy, with everyone saying that Andre Iguodala, who performed an incredible alley-oop of the back of the backboard, then came under it to slam the ball hard, was robbed. ESPN, Allen Iverson, and the Sports Guy can say whatever they want, but it simply didn’t impress me as much as Robinson’s dunks.
Especially the one where Robinson went into the crowd, pulled out Spudd Webb, and then jumped over the former champion to slam it home.
Read that again.
Especially the one where Robinson went into the crowd, pulled out Spudd Webb, and then jumped over the former champion to slam it home.
The dude is five-foot nine!! Spud is five-foot six! Robinson had to basically get his feet where his head normally is! Those giants who are six-foot six don’t have to do that. They just need to get up another three-and-a-half feet. But Robinson had to jump over himself! That’s just ridiculous. And that’s why deserved to win. Height should count in something like this.
Now, I know what you’re going to say. For all of his successful dunks shown on TV, there were an awful lot misses that weren’t shown. The Sports Guy, who was at the competition in person, writes:
Nate Robinson won Saturday’s contest even though it took him roughly 75 times to complete two of his dunks. This went well beyond “It’s time for the Birdman to fly” territory, or even feel-good “Costner in ‘Tin Cup’” territory; Nate’s complete disregard for the fans was almost overwhelming. I mean, we were sitting there for like 10 minutes watching him try dunks with a 2.5-percent probability of succeeding. I don’t know how it played on TV, but in person? Excruciating.
And that’s a fair criticism. But at the end of the day, those dunks with 2.5-percent probability, well, Robinson made them! Sports Guy’s comparison to Tin Cup here is an apt one. And I have the feeling that, had he been in the crowd that day when Roy McAvoy refused to lay up and just kept hitting that ball into the water, we would have read in Sports Guy’s column that McAvoy embarassed himself and the game of golf with that display of masculine bravado. All of which is to say to Sports Guy: THBPBPTHPT!.
The little dude won. And he won because he was a little dude. Is that so wrong? Decide for yourself. Here’s the highlights.
