Vince Carter Charity Game: Good God!

I doubt that most of you in Houston knows, but this was a huge roundball weekend in Toronto. Vince has his charity weekend, with a celeb golf tournament and a charity basketball game, and Shaq has his annual summer charity game in Toronto. Well, there were lots of interesting things about this weekend, but wait till I get to the dunks....out of this universe! Maybe not quite as unbelievable-rewind-the-tape-to-make-sure-you-actually-saw-what-you-think-you-saw as the one at the Olympics (where, for those of you just back from your rowboat tour of the globe, Vince jumperd over 7'-1" French center Fred Weiss, but thse dunks today were the best in-game( admitedly charity no-D game) dunks I've seen other than that. I'll describe them in a bit...First the other neat stuff...

THe VC game sold out, 19, 800 for a charity game. VC said it was some kind of record, but who knows...There were tons of stars..Ray Allen, Zo Mourning, Michael Finley, Antawn Jamison, etc...Garnett was supposed to come but had to cancel due to the Korey Stringer tragedy in Minnesota...One of the reasons these guys, and Shaq, Tracy McGrady, etc. (other game) were here was our annual Caribanna Festival, which is the biggest Carribean Festival in North America..it's sort of a Mardi Gras..dancing, music, parades, etc. all weekend, and I think it's the most attended event for African American/Canadians each year...All kinds of celebs come every year...Shaq says he'll be here every summer for the rest of his life, he loves Caribanna..and it's unofficially the reason why he chooses Toronto for his annual Charity game...

OK, now the dunks...

1) Shammond Williams alley-oops to VC off the backboard, where he gets it and windmills it..So fast and furious!Other players were leaning back and staring even after he came down...wow!

2) VC slices through 3 guys actually giving defense a half-assed effort, and spins around 1 1/2 times as he's exploding to the net between them! Something else....

3) Micheal Finley launches from 1/2 court...mid-game(!!!)..and banks it in...

4) Lots of Globetrotting going on...guys wrapping the ball around their bodies inside their shirts, pretending to dribble while leaving the ball on the floor behind them, stuff like that. Oh...and on this one play...OMG!...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX gets the ball at the right elbow, faces up to JYD, and does this cross over with his hands about head high..as he's cutting in, JYD pokes the ball free, and a 2 on none results in a Williams dunk..which was nothing special..but, in case you noticed, the play began with JYD playing defense. I think he was fined or something...

5) Anyways...last but not least...towards the end of the game..which ended up something like 172-170....VC cuts through a crowd of tourists masquerading as defenders, launches...and dunks with his arm going through the net, where he hangs from his elbow...yes, like the one at the Dunk Competition 2 years ago, except during a game...it was incredible...other guys just started laughing and shaking their heads...Personally, I see that, I think seperated shoulder, but what do I know?

6) Also, as a post script, while I didn't see it, everyone in Toronto is talking about a couple of dunks VC did during the warm-ups...One was THE dunk, the between the legs alley-oops thing that he did at the Competition...another may be the one he wins with this year...It goes like this...

He comes in at the basket from about a 3/4 angle, takes off maybe 1/2 step inside the free throw line, and does a 720 degree spin and dunk... I'm not kidding....

Ok, thanks for listening, those who are interested in this type of thing...

Night.

 

Another couple of highlights...Corey Maggette had a monster dunk...nothing special on style, but great height and power... Another FANtastic (yes, I am receiving royalties from a certain Mr. Stern) VC dunk..he comes in from the left on the break, someone (I think maybe Elton Brand) goes up for the black...VC, who has already started a sideways windmill, keeps going with it so that he brings the ball from in front of the blocker to behind him all in one sweeping motion which ends in a jam...it's a really hard one to describe, but if you saw it, you'd not soon forget it..

.Another moment..Jerome Williams gets the ball out behind the three-point line on a semi-break, pulls it in, and with his other hand exhorts the crowd...really gets them going, and soon almost 20, 000 are screaming for him to launch one..( An astute observer might make certain conclusions about the opposing team's defensive intensity at this point, but I digress.) Well, ever a man of the people, JYD lets go with a textbook 3-pt shot, a thing of beauty which could only have been improved had the aforementioned shot come within 10 ft. of the basket...I mean, complete airball...After encouraging the crowd to encourage him...It was a moment to remember, unless you're Williams, in which case I recommend therapy or the old tried and true drunken binge in the company of strippers which is all the rage with pro athletes who want to erase ugly memories...

Mark Jackson also had quite a few of his pattented behind the back no look passes (which I know from experience and the odd car windshield repair bill are harder to execute in real life than on Nintendo), and ended up with something like 22 assists...The final score was, I think 176-171...