Okay, so this one technically isn’t about the NBA, since it’s a bunch of athletes from other sports participating in a slam dunk contest. But really, without the NBA — and without the ubiquity of Michael Jordan in 1992 — there’s not a chance in the world that this slam dunk contest happens. These are NFL and MLB (and NFL+MLB, in Deion’s case) players trying their damnedest to emulate their NBA hero. And this is a pretty star-studded crowd: we’ve got Ken Griffey, Jr., Barry Bonds, Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin and, perhaps most importantly for NBA fans, Mike Conley, Sr. Surprise: in the end, Conley steals the show.
Tip o’ the cap to to Redditor rackcitytourismboard for sharing this video over on Reddit.
In some cases, these professional athletes do an okay job of throwing it down. In other cases, as with Mr. Barry Bonds and his “free throw line” dunk, things come up a bit short.
Then there’s Mike Conley, Sr., who entered a little competition of his own with Olympic long jumper Mike Powell to see who could throw down the longest dunk. Take it away, Mr. Conley (via Redditor goinghardinthepaint):
It’s official: I want to be like Mike.