WORLD’S GREATEST DUNKER ON UK’S MOST AVERAGE TEAM

If you’re anything like me, you love the NBA dunk contest and build orphanages on the weekend. I didn’t even know this but the Leicester Riders squad have attained a man widely regarded as “The World’s Greatest Dunker”.  Guy Dupuy, originally from France, moved to Florida before going on to Leicester (followed presumably by clinical depression) and has wowed local fans with his incredible athletic ability. YouTube is packed with appearances of his from around the world, dunking over chairs, cars and in one case, an entire Mexican family. Midnight Madness finals boasted him and a group known as Team Flight Brothers who have been regulars at many NBA halftime shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJTQ7fX9zXk

This of course being Britain, budget issues dictated that we could only arrange a bench clearing brawl for him. A recent game between the Riders and MK Lion’s resulted in both squads pouring off the bench in the 4^th quarter, fisticuffs abound (the worst kind of cuffs) which resulted with the ejection of Barry Lamble and The World’s Greatest Dunker.

This brings us all round nicely to the upcoming dunk contest at the NBA All-Star Weekend. If you haven’t heard by now, the NBA and Sprite recently toured America looking for the best amateur dunkers in the country. In conclusion of the tour, 8 regional winners and 2 online submission winners were selected to be part of the final 10 contestants. From these final 10 dunkers, the top 4 vote getters (via public online vote) will be sent to the NBA 2010 All-Star Weekend in Dallas, Texas to participate in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest. And yes, our boy Dupuy made the cut, blowing the competition away in San Francisco. (Cue lots of guys placing their fist to their mouth after each dunk and holding themselves upright via one hand on their buddies shoulder. You know who you are.)

Defending champ Nate Robinson of the Knicks, the Bobcat's Gerald Wallace and the Lakers' Shannon Brown will represent the NBA alongside the winners of the Sprite Slam-Dunk Showdown. The big overshadowing story in all of this is that LeBron James was supposed to be attending following a statement made during last year’s competition, but whether its ego or whatever, he decided to jump ship.

But at the end of the day, its not about the opportunity of a lifetime for these amateur guys, but a chance for the rest of us to point and laugh at some of the pretentious names they go by.

Check out these classics from the Sprite tour:

10.          Star Child

9.            Half Man, Half Cut

8.            Grasshopper

7.            Air Up There

6.            40 Cal

5.            Bungeez

4.            Cleveland Steamboat

3.            Special FX

2.            Purty Teeth

1.            Futuristic Bruce

Ok, so i lied a little. 30% of these were made up from a concoction of too much coffee and a handful of Haribo, but you can spend the time-outs deciding which (answers at the bottom of the page).

Jamie.

Answers: 9, 4 and 2 are bare-faced lies.