Much ado was made about Nate Robinson and his kryptonite dunks to defeat super-Dwight, but the NBA Slam Dunk was amateur hour compared to the D-League edition between James White and Keith Clark. I witnessed James White get robbed in the McDonald’s High School Slam Dunk Contest in legendary Holiday Gymnasium at Broughton High School. His fellow Gator signee, David Lee, took home the crown, despite White’s mind blowing two-handed free throw line, with a shimmy around the head dunk.
White opened up this contest with his patented distance dunk, going legit behind the free throw line for a perfect 50. Most “free throw line” dunks aren’t quite that, usually a step inside the free throw line. Clark, quite the leaper himself, answered with an off the backboard windmill for a 45. Next up, White comes with a two handed windmill from about three feet inside the free throw line for a 42. To make the finals, Clark only needed to complete a dunk with other contestants failing to do so. He did a little more than that, going off the side of the backboard for a power dunk, garnering a 50.
White opened the finals with a 50, on an alley oop from a seated player while jumping over said player. Clark answered with a completely sickner alley oop from the same guy from the chair dunk, which he caught off the backboard, went between the legs into a windmill. This is simply one of the best dunks I have ever seen, which can be seen above. In his final attempt, White went just inside the free throw line, with a windmill for good measure, for another 50, also seen above. Clark missed his final dunk to give White the title.
The NBA hasn’t see the likes of this since Jordan and ‘Nique squared off. Lebron has been rumored to have interest in next year’s contest. I’ve been saying for years a group of sponsors needs to put a $1 Million on it and get all the big boys involved. Can you imagine a dunk contest with Lebron, Vinsanity, Josh Smith, Jason Richardson, D-Wade, etc? Hell, maybe JR Rider would come out of retirement for this one.
