In 1986 dunk contest, Hawks’ Spud Webb soared
Spud Webb remembers getting on the bus after winning the slam dunk contest during NBA All-Star weekend 35 years ago and being offered a quick piece of advice from Doc Rivers, one of his Atlanta Hawks teammates at the time.
The message: Your life just changed forever.
“He wasn’t joking,” Webb said. “Everywhere I go, even today, people are talking about it.”
That’s what happens when someone who’s 5-foot-7 — a height that was perhaps generously listed — captures imaginations by winning the dunk contest, which was just in its third year. Webb returns to the dunk contest tonight in Atlanta as one of the judges, when first-time competitors Anfernee Simons of the Portland Trail Blazers, Cassius Stanley of the Indiana Pacers and Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks will face off for the title.
With the general public not allowed to attend All-Star festivities this year due to COVID19 concerns, the schedule has been compressed by moving the competitions typically held on Saturday night to today. The skills challenge and 3-point contest are set for 6:30 p.m., with the dunk contest at halftime of the 8 p.m. main event between Team Durant and Team LeBron. TBS and TNT will televise it all.
Simons, Stanley and Toppin are not big NBA names yet, but that might be about to change.
“Hopefully, these guys put on a show for everybody and leave them talking,” Webb said. “I guess that’s really what it’s all about. If people don’t believe in you, then you can go out and prove that you are one of the best dunkers in the NBA.”
He knows a little something about that.
Webb was an NBA point guard from 1985 to 1997, averaging 9.9 points and 5.3 assists in a career that included two stints with the Hawks and time with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings.
He won his dunk title in Dallas, his hometown, where the NBA rookie had to beat Hawks teammate Dominique Wilkins to get the trophy. Even now, the 57-year-old Webb sees his win as the ultimate underdog moment because he still insists the 6-foot-9 Wilkins is the best dunker of all time. A nine-time All-Star who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, Wilkins won the dunk contest in 1985 and again in 1990.
On Feb. 8, 1986, though, Webb stood tall.
“There were only 20,000 people in Reunion Arena,” Webb said. “I’ve had 100,000 people in Dallas tell me they were there.”
That will be a tough claim for someone to make this year. Only about 1,500 guests — mostly vaccinated health-care workers on the front lines of the pandemic — have been invited to watch today’s events at State Farm Arena.
The dunk contest will be a tworound event. The three competitors will perform two dunks each in the first round, and then the two with the highest combined score from those will get one dunk each to decide the champion. Those final dunks won’t get a score; the winner will be determined as the judges raise cards that have the dunker’s name on it.
“I was going to try and do stuff that hasn’t been done yet in the dunk contest,” said Toppin, who led major college basketball with 107 dunks last season at Dayton. “But I’ve seen a lot of great dunks, so I might have to bring out one of the old dunks that someone did.”
Webb — part of a five-judge panel this year, all of them former dunk contest champions — isn’t opposed to that approach. He’ll be joined by Wilkins, Dee Brown (1991 winner), Jason Richardson (2002, 2003) and Josh Smith (2005) — another former Hawk — to choose this year’s champ.
“I think even if they repeat a dunk, it depends on the artistic and creative parts of it,” Webb said. “I like the power dunks. I’m just excited to see what these guys are going to do.”
Special night for refs
The only instances of NBA referees Tony Brown, Courtney Kirkland and Tom Washington all officiating basketball together are some offseason pro-am games in Atlanta, the city they all call home.
That will change tonight. Brown, Kirkland and Washington were chosen as the officiating crew for this year’s All-Star Game, and those selections are significant for a number of reasons — including that they get to represent Atlanta and that all three are graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, a primary focus of this game from a charitable and exposure standpoint.
“One of the things significant for me is that I’m working with Tom and I’m working with Tony. We could stop right there if we had to,” Kirkland said. “The HBCU thing, that’s awesome. But having the opportunity to work with two guys that are really close with me, it’s just an honor to work with them.”
They have a combined 70 seasons of experience, a neat coincidence because this is the 70th NBA All-Star Game. Washington is working the event for a third time and Brown and Kirkland each for the second time.
Washington is a graduate of Norfolk State, while Kirkland is a graduate of Southern, with Brown a graduate of Clark Atlanta. They fully understand the significance of this game and what the NBA putting a spotlight on HBCUs may wind up meaning for those institutions.
“I think that exposure from this game is going to be fantastic because we’re going to actually enlighten people on another subset of our educational process here,” Washington said. “I’d like to see them exist on the same level as Ivy League schools, as Big Ten schools. And I also think that the fact that they’re doing that and the fact that us three are going to be out there representing them should be empowering and encouraging to the young people behind us. There is quality education being provided by HBCUs.”
The NBA and the players’ union are donating more than $3 million to aid HBCUs, much of it decided by the outcome of the game. Team LeBron will play on behalf of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, while Team Durant represents the United Negro College Fund.
Both organizations will receive $500,000 to start. Another $450,000 will divvied up based on the winners of the first, second and third quarters. Finally, the team that reaches the target score to win the game will ensure $300,000 for its cause.