Best Dunker Ever?
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- February
- 26
 In this area, that one is easy. It’s Rashad James.
Just one man’s opinion. Rick Carpiniello might agree, although he’s seen a lot more basketball than I have in my day. Our esteemed columnist wrote a fun story in today’s Journal News on the topic of dunking, which I urge you to check out.
Carp has been talking about this story for a few weeks. He doesn’t understand why dunking is still such a big deal. Josh Thomson and I give him a hard time whenever he brings it up. Why people go to see fireworks on the 4th of July? Why does everyone count down on New Years Eve? Why do I cry every time I see the movie Beaches? Because no matter how many times you see it, you always feel like it’s going to be better than ever before.
Wait, did I just admit to crying at Beaches?
Anyway, in today’s column, Carp mentioned who some of the best dunkers of all-time were. You can discuss it more on his blog, which you’ll find here.
My list of the best dunkers I’ve seen in 10 years of following hoops in the area:
1. Rashad James, White Plains: I saw him once leave the ground, untie his shoes, take off his socks, put his shoes back on and tie them before throwing down a dunk. I swear. It was awesome.
2. Ben Gordon, Mount Vernon: Nobody dunked in more game-changing situations than the current NBA star.
3. Mike Kach, Carmel: You probably didn’t expect to see him here. But Kach, now at UPenn, is a legend in the Senior All-Star Game dunk contest. His windmill had fans rushing onto the court.
4. Geoff McDermott, New Rochelle: His father, Big Geoff, still believes his son had a triple in the Huguenots’ state tournament win at Cortland three years ago — 24 points, 16 rebounds and 10 dunks. Geoff used to try and dunk on people.
5. Elton Brand, Peekskill: Once dunked so many times at Hen Hud that he bent the rim. I know the guy who guarded him. He got his autograph after the game (true story).
6. Mookie Jones, Peekskill: The only guy I’ve ever seen throw down a reverse dunk in a game. He’s probably done it 8-10 times.
7. Melquan Bolding, Beacon/Stepinac: He was probably good for an alley-oop or two per game from Tony Taylor when they played together the last two seasons. Bolding was so quick off the floor.
8. Sherrod Wright, Mount Vernon: Has a Ben Gordon-like penchant for dunking in huge situations. He’s also great at elevating over a defender and throwing it down in their face.
9. Keith Benjamin, Mount Vernon: Was great at blowing past a defender, driving baseline, having a defender step in and dunking over them. For a guy 6-foot-2, he could jump flat-footed from underneath the basket and dunk. Some 6-7 guys can’t do that consistently.
10. Eric Mingo, MLK: If there was ever a high school player in this area who’d try putting a cupcake on the rim and blow out the candle while dunking, Mingo was the guy. He was a freak athlete who was fearless.
Obviously, being a young lad like myself, my basketball experience only goes back to 1998. We’d love to hear who the best you’ve ever seen are.
UPDATE, 4:50 p.m.: Alex Myers and Josh Thomson reminded me how great of a dunker Curtis Dennis was at Blessed Sacrament two years ago. I don’t remember it was clearly as they do. But Alex said he was “Latrell Sprewell-like” in Glens Falls. It doesn’t take much for Alex to get pumped, but I’ll take his word for it. By the way, Dennis is currently at a prep school out West and has signed to play for New Mexico State.
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on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 1:43 pm by Kevin Devaney Jr..
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Where is Mingo now? he had a teamate named Manny Lopez who was equally impressive. Any word on their whereabouts???
The 2 Best Dunkers of All Time are:
1. Collin Johnson – Mt Vernon
Incredible athlete, scorer who could do it all. He was the best player on a team that featured Rasual ” Air Sual” Salahuddin (sp), Dean Marshman, David Jon Ming, The Pritchetts bros, Dana Doggett among many others. He didnt even scratch the ceiling on how good he good he could of been. Tradgey unfortunately struck him years later and he never really played college ball. Ask any player from the early 90’s. On any WP, Scarsdale, New Ro and Spring Valley teams how good he was. He dunked on everybody.
1a. Rashad James – White Plains
Super freak athlete, with scoring ability. Can dunk over everybody. Ask some of the players from this years teams. Witness what he did in warmups and in the SlamDunk Challenge this year. Single handily can change the came with 1 break away or alley oop from half court. His vertical is in the 40’s and pound for pound the best ever. He is just scratching the surface on how good a college player he can be. Being sought after by the likes of St Bonnies, Florida Atlantic, Bradley, Robert Morris, FDU, Qunnipiac, U Texas- San Antonio, Manhattan, Stony Brook among others.
Wheres Bolding?
Is he going to Louisville?
Kevin
If your wife is still soaking up the sun and you ran out of food hit up Candlelight down Central not far the County Center, great wings.
rashad james is the best jumper (not just dunker) i’ve ever even heard of, on almost any level. I firmly believe that he can enter the nba dunk contest and not be laughed at. i’ve seen him do better then the cupcake dunk…
also michael mcduffie should be in the top 10
Bill Pleas
might be before your times boys, “Detroits Jumpin Dave Bing could leave a quarter on top of the backboard, Mt.Vernons Bill Pleas would leave the change”. This was a description of his ability written in S.I. years ago, but might be hard to prove. One ball in each hand was a no brainer, this guy wouldn’t come down from the opening jump for 3 seconds.
This year vs Yoankers, Donny Mimnaugh gave a dinner served alley oop off the backboard to Floyd LeRoy through traffic. He widnmilled it with 2 hands and threw it down with one. It seemed like he was in the air forever.
Bolding has been officially released from his commitment to Louisville as of Feb. 20th. Check out this blog:
http://njmg.typepad.com/zagsblog/2008/02/louisville-out.html
ZAGS BLOGS – Adam Zagoria
Louisville Out of Evans Sweepstakes
Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting that Louisville is out of the Tyreke Evans Sweepstakes and will focus exclusively on players from the Class of 2009.
Apparently the feeling is that Evans will likely end up at Memphis.
“Don’t look for Tyreke Evans to be in a Louisville uniform,” Demling said on his Podcast, adding that the Cards’ 08 class is more or less set with Terrence Jennings, Samardo Samuels and Jared Swopshire. “Louisville’s been courting him for a number of years, but it seems that things have cooled between the Cardinals and Evans…And it appears that Tyreke is leaning toward Memphis. Don’t expect him to be a Cardinal.”
Evans will be in New Jersey Thursday when he and his teammates take on Bob Hurley’s St. Anthony team in a 9 p.m. game at St. Peter’s College to be shown on ESPN. From there, he and his brothers will head to Memphis Friday for Saturday’s Memphis-Tennessee game.
“I can’t wait to be in that building for that game,” Evans told the Philly Daily News, adding that he wished to play for a team that has Final Four potential.
We reported last night that Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino is in Massachusetts today visiting Mike Marra, a 6-4 junior shooting guard from Northfield Mount Hermon. Pitino is looking hard at Marra, guard Peyton Siva, a 5-11 PG from Seattle, Wash., and Rakeem Buckles, a 6-8 PF from Miami (Fl.) Pace, Demling added.
The Cards are also out of the mix for Lamont “Momo” Jones, a former commit who’s a junior guard at American Christian, and it appears they’re also out of it for one-time commit Melquan Bolding, a senior guard at Notre Dame Prep.
”(Bolding) won’t be coming to Louisville,” Demling said. “Sources on both sides have told me not to expect him in a Louisville uniform.”
He is trying to sway his way to St John’s & Seton Hall, but they dont want him. Kilpatrick is a better fit for both of these schools.
Rasul is the best dunker in the past 20 yrs in Westchester. I believe he won the dunk contest at the final 4 his senior year with a bum knee.
Sherrod wright…i have videos of him in the gym at mount vernon….windmills and 360s and everything
Big Man…Bill Pleas…Little Man…Charlie Criss
One of the best I remember from the late 70’s early 80’s was Lowes Moore from Mt. Vernon. I think he was only around 6’ – 6’ 2” but he could jump out of the building! Probably half his points came on dunks!
Check out the top-dunkers list we’re compiling over at my blog at http://www.carp.lohudblogs.com
It’s getting pretty long, and the list spans decades of doctors of dunk.
sherrod wright is the best dunker
Saw PAT CREAN from Sleepy Hollow dunk over MOHAMMAD LO from Port Chester when Sleepy upset them at Portchester in their small gym. It was a facial too, not some bulls*it dunk.
The best one I saw this year was Dayvon Whitaker’s 5’9 dunk over 6’11 Jordan Henriguez. The Poughkepsie guards dunked over the big guy hard. It was on U Tube.
i wouldnt call dayvon’s dunk “over” henriquez… jordan was trailing the play… but the dunk itself for a 5’9 kid was very impressive i must admit
i like and respect sean kilpatrick’s game but he is not a big east player. this is the problem today with student-athlete’s trying to play in a league out of their realm!
st. john’s doesn’t need kilpatrick…they need a blue chip like tyreke evans / landesberg / kemba…etc… kilpatrick is nowhere in that league… he should go some where, where he will play right away and get a good / quality education.
maac / horizon / colonial…these are leagues that people underestimate…there is some good competitive talent there!
i think kids like the sound of saying that they are playing in “the big east or “the acc” or “the sec”...just go where you are going to play!
On the side of the coin….who is the most like Billy Paultz out of St. John’s….who has survived with a vertical leap of well…inches? Now that’s the player one has to be amazed at…Billy was 6’11” that always helped.
On the other side of the coin….who is the most like Billy Paultz out of St. John’s….who has survived with a vertical leap of well…inches? Now that’s the player one has to be amazed at…Billy was 6’11” that always helped.
Come On…James is known as this amazing dunker because that’s all he does well.
Geoff McDermott had 10 game changing dunks in the playoffs alone during his senior season.
Anyone ever hear of Ben Gordon? He patented that Mt. Vernon opening tip alley oop.
But here is the true winner….
ROBERTO MACKLIN from Beacon a couple years ago!!! That was the best dunker I’ve ever seen.
This side of the bridge in Rockland we look no further than Guy Tillman from Nyack back in the early 80’s. Unreal, people would have summer games and have dunk contests and he would leap over tables. Most incredible ups I have seen
Riley you may be right in saying in the last 20 years, I don’t know. Bill Pleas played in the middle 60’s, and would take coins off the top of a backboard. Now think about that for a second, I’m not taking about touching it, we are taking a quarter off the top of the glass. He waist was almost even with the net at times, the best vertical leaper in MV history. Played briefly in the NBA, and it wasn’t because of his shooting.
Without a doubt Guy Tillman!!! Nyack,Yonkers,
Nova Southestern
Billy Paultz was a very underated player. He may not have been a great jumper but he was far from the worst. He was a mobile player for his size and he could nail a jumper and use glass. Billy Paultz was also a very smart player helping his team win championships in the ABA and NBA. And he’s a fan favorite everywhere he’s played, from the Nets to the Spurs to the Rockets. He worked hard at his game and was always a joy to watch. He had no problem dunking. It’s just that Julius Erving was a teammate and all he was is the greatest dunker in basketball history. Too bad NBA fans never saw the “true” Dr. J that we ABA fans saw – he was the best, nobody better, not Dominique, not Jordan, not LeBron.
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Jamal Key 1987 beat terrence steel of Mt Vernon N.Y. in the golden hoops classic dunk contest.He went to Roosevelt high school in 1986,then him and Bryant white transferred to gorton high school to team with Tyrone Mack.Jamal Key and Tyrone Mack both averaged 29 ppg.
I have to nominate a guy out of Mahopac High School by the name of Larry Glover…He averaged 20pts and 19rebs a game…all League..all section…could jump out of the gym…he won the Golden Hoops Dunk Contest…this kid could touch the top of the square…wound up getting full ride to Norfolk State…im tellin you..i saw him dunk on a kid backwards at Greenburgh Rec..He played for Young Life and Riverside Gauchos B team..good kid..a little skinny..but had a forty inch vert…