I’m gonna skip the build up because, at this point, you’ve already seen Gerald Green’s alley-oop windmill no fewer than 100 times. You’ve paused the video at the part where it looks like he’s about to take a bite out of the rim, you’ve wondered what the hell kind of hand sign he was making, and you’ve chuckled at the reaction of Houston’s bench. Maybe you’ve also noticed that DeShawn Stevenson kind of looked like the fat kid. That, to me, was the most humorous part of the aftermath, but you can take your pick. From Chase Budinger thinking “sh!t, that’s better than anything I did in the dunk contest” to Kevin McHale flinching, the dunk inspired a number of memorable reactions. I wish I’d seen it live so I could describe mine.
Apparently the aforementioned DeShawn Stevenson deserves some credit here. This via ESPN.com…
“I’ve done that [dunk] plenty of times,” said Green, the 2007 NBA Slam Dunk Champion, who finished with a season-high 26 points. “I’ve done it like if I’m messing around in pre-game warmups, or maybe in layup lines. A teammate [DeShawn Stevenson] asked me, ‘Next time you get a chance to do dunk, do something nasty,’ so I tried.
No, Gerald, you did not try to do something nasty… you did something nasty. Just like Jedi Master Stevenson told you to.
Wondering where I’d rank this dunk amongst the NBA’s greatest alley-oops? No worse than fourth. Vince Carter’s one-hander against the Clippers, Stromile Swift’s Inspector Gadget dunk against the Nets, and LeBron’s leap over John Lucas are the only lobs that can see this one, in my opinion.
How about Dwight’s rookie (or sophomore) year hand-back-dunk against Celtics? Very similar to the Stro’s though. And then VC done this windmill just that it happened in preseason with stands being empty. I think that’s why you didn’t mention it.
Yeah, I was only considering dunks from regular season NBA games. As for Dwight’s, a poor man’s version of Swift’s IMO. Dwight leaned whereas Swift just reached.