Tues, Feb 4th, 2020

White guys in the dunk contest: A history

February 04, 2020

Tues, Feb 4th, 2020

    

  • Pat Connaughton will join a long line of generally unsuccessful white dunk contest participants

  • The Knicks have fired team president Steve Mills 

  • The Grizzlies are feuding with technical teammate Andre Iguodala

 1. The Lead: White guys in the dunk contest, explored   

Milwaukee guard Pat Connaughton, a white, is going to be in the 2020 dunk contest.While unusual, his upcoming appearance is certainly not unprecedented. White guys have a long, thin and generally uncelebrated history in the dunk contest.The numbers, via our friends at Wikipedia: Since the NBA picked up the gimmick in 1984 -- which it stole from the ABA, mind you -- seven American white guys have participated a total of nine times.

  • 1987 -- Tom Chambers, who owns perhaps the most famous in-game WGD (white guy dunk) 

  • 1990 -- Rex Chapman

  • 1991 -- Chapman, again

  • 1996 -- Brent Barry, more on him in a second

  • 1997 -- Bob Sura

  • 2004 -- Chris Andersen (Birdman)

  • 2005 -- Birdman, again

  • 2012 -- Chase Budinger

  • 2015 -- Mason Plumlee

First off: Tom. Rex. Brent. Bob. Chris. Chase. Mason. You might say these white guys belong in a different type of fraternity.Secondly: The one white guy to defy the odds was Brent Barry, in San Antonio in 1996. He beat a field of Michael Finley, Greg Minor, Jerry Stackhouse, Doug Christie and Darrell Armstong to earn the title of Only White Guy to Win a Dunk Contest.His Sistine Chapel was this free throw line jam:

Watch the full video here; there’s a legit buzz among players and fans, and a few shots of Michael Finley definitely thinking, I can’t lose to a white guy.Barry told a great story involving Charles Barkley and his victory years later on an episode of Open Court: 

That day Charles was having lunch on the River Walk in San Antonio. I was sitting with Charles having lunch and Gary Payton was there as well and I just happened to be with my mom and my stepdad at the time, and Charles invited us over, said, ‘Hey, come have lunch with us.’ I said, ‘Charles I gotta go over to do the contest.’ I was getting up from lunch early. … So I get up to go do that. I left my mom and stepdad with Charles, went over to the arena … and ended up winning the dunk contest. And then I saw Charles later, and he goes, ‘I didn’t know you were going to be in the dunk contest!’ I think he thought I was going over to ball boy the game.  

Alas, Barry’s win was an anomaly, not a trend. It’s generally been a tough go for white guys over the years; only two times has one advanced past the first round: Barry in ‘96 and Chapman in ‘91.

Some other notable moments: 

  • Tom Chambers’ historic first WGD in NBA dunk contest history

  • Chase Budinger dunking over Diddy, then for some reason throwing his hat into the crowd

  • Spiky-haired Birdman, pre-tattoos, completing a pretty nice lob to himself off the backboard

  • Rex Chapman’s behind the back self alley-oop

As for Connaughton’s chances, we scoured the internet for a pro-Pat defense.We found the only one, via Golf Digest, of course, which seems pretty on brand for Golf Digest. The publication ran an article yesterday, entitled:

Whatever you do, don't laugh at Pat Connaughton in the Dunk Contest 

OK,

Golf Digest

. He do be jumping

, though. 

2.  Quick Hits 

  • The stupid Knicksfired their stupid president, Steve Mills, today. Scott Perry will take over the position on an interim basis.

  • Want to hear something funny? The Knicks think they can lure Masai Ujiri from Toronto. 

  • The Grizzliesare Twitter beefing with Andre Iguodala and Steph Curry.

  • Here’s a young kid high-fiving the Atlanta Hawks out of the tunnel.

  • Jimmy Butler’s reaction to his season-high 38 points: “I feel like Luka.”

  • Also, the Heat beat the 76ers last night, 137-106, and chaos is starting to descend upon Philly. 

  • Paul George with the crossover and dagger in the Clippers’ 108-105 victory over the Spurs last night.

  • A reminder that Kevin love is still capable of being a good NBA player.

3.  Off the press