A truly impressive slam dunk contest champion
Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you win a slam dunk contest.
Without using props, relying on nothing but pure athleticism and a personal penchant for gymnastics, Central-Haynesville (Ala.) High star Antjuan Ball took home the inaugural National High School Slam Dunk Championship in Houston on Friday. Based on excitement generated from impressive performances by Ball and others, the dunk and 3-point contests, which were held as part of the city's pre-Final Four festivities, may become an annual fixture on the eve of college basketball's biggest day.
"I've been practicing all week," Ball told the Houston Chronicle. "I knew I could get them together."
While Ball put forth an impressive repertoire of dunks, including leaping over three standing children (an old favorite standby among up and coming dunkers), and a dunk in which he slammed two balls simultaneously, the most acclaimed of his sports performance art pieces was the finale you see above, in which he completed a back handspring, caught the ball on a single bounce and threw down an impeccable reverse dunk.
"I knew the flipping part was going to get them," Ball told the Chronicle. "Nobody else had a flip."
Sadly for Ball, his team's season wasn't quite as successful, with Central-Haynesville bowing out in the second round of Alabama's Class 2A playoffs. That being said, the exposure Ball will receive after his impressive dunk performance is a heck of a way to bounce back, isn't it?
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