Allen: A rebuttal to Bob Ryan

Dear Mr. Ryan,

I read your take on the NBA slam dunk contest from your Monday afternoon blog entry, and I have to say that I respectfully disagree. As you know, I hold you and your basketball knowledge and opinions in the highest regard. But in this instance, I really need to let you know where I think you’re off base here.

You wondered why we’re caught up in “dunkmania” after witnessing the exploits of Dwight Howard and Gerald Green on Saturday night. You sarcastically wondered why we’re supposed to be dazzled with a 7-footer who is as athletic as Howard. You dismiss Howard’s feats, and claim that if so motivated, Wilt Chamberlain in his prime could’ve done anything that Howard did on Saturday night. In dismissing our awe of Howard’s athletic ability, you stated that he isn’t even as athletic as our own Kevin Garnett.

Well, Chamberlain and Garnett might very well be as athletic as Howard, but I’ve never seen either of them do what I saw this past weekend. OK, so I haven’t seen much of Wilt outside of ESPN Classic, and old highlight films where Bill Russell is blocking his shots. Watching Wilt in those instances, I have a hard time believing that he could’ve done Howard’s first dunk. You know, the one where he threw the ball off the back of the backboard, caught it in mid air and then ducked under the backboard and dunked the ball in one fluid, powerful motion. From this chair, that was the most impressive dunk of the evening.

The dunk where Howard tossed the ball, then hit it with one hand off the backboard, caught it with the other, and dunked might very well have been possible for Wilt. One thing you neglected to mention in the athletic achievements of Wilt was his professional volleyball experience.  That experience probably would’ve served him well in attempting that one. The Superman dunk (it was actually more like throwing the ball down disdainfully from a few feet above the rim) was perhaps something possible for Chamberlain, but I don’t quite see the Big Dipper pulling the whole thing off with the same flair that Howard displayed.

You claim your entry was written to give some perspective to all of us who were going overboard in praise of Howard’s performance. You brought up Wilt as the evidence that Howard isn’t alone in being an insanely athletic 7-footer. But really, aren’t those kind of rare? OK. So you found one other guy. Who else? You went back almost 50 years in citing Chamberlain, circa 1959. So ... we’ve got two guys in half-century that we might be able to compare in this regard. That’s pretty special, in my book.

As a rule, seven-footers aren’t generally known for their grace and athleticism. (Think Acie Earl, Mark Eaton, Steve Hamer or Paul Mokeski.) We might take it for granted in watching the NBA and seeing people of that height who can run without falling over their own feet and can hop around without breaking their knees and ankles each time they try to jump. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’m guessing the seven-footers in the NBA are just a fraction of the number of those in the general population. In high school, I saw one guy 7-foot-2 and played against another that was 6-foot-11, and those guys couldn’t get out of their own way. They could barely get up and down the court. I happen to think that those two are more representative of the athletic abilities of people that size than the freaks (meant in a totally good way) that we see in the NBA.

Rather than dismissing Howard’s victory in the dunk contest because of his size, I think we should be sitting here in awe of what he able to do, given his size and strength. Sure, perhaps Howard didn’t have to jump as high in order to do the dunks, but he did jump as high as many smaller players would have, and shouldn’t be punished or dismissed simply because of his size.

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet.