[Here’s a short personal recap of what went down at ESPN City Slam by K1X’s Stephan Hauner.
ESPN City Slam 2008 in Chicago, the biggest slam dunk contest in the world! Prize money 20.000$!!! Frankly I did not quite know what to expect. But with running the show, I thought it would be a little more upscale than the dunking contests I had been to so far. And let me tell you, this joint was a whole new ballgame! Here is a brief summary…
Friday afternoon, the day before the event, I arrived at the Amalfi Hotel in downtown Chi to hook up our boys guy „Easy Jumper“ Dupuy, Marvin „High Rizer“ Collins and T-Dub with fresh K1X gear and shoes. Entering the hotel lobby, I met „Elevator“ and Chuck Millan from the legendary dunking squad Team Flight Brothers, who gave me hard time for not overstressing my airline freight with extra K1X product for them. A minute later the boys came down. I handed out the stuff and felt like Santa while the other dunkers, that were hanging out in the lobby gave me a jealous eye. No hate, the vibe at the hotel was like the one at a family reunion…
Friday night, being tired as hell, I was literally forced to hit the clubs by party boosters Chuck „I do breakdance“ Millan and Guy „two days no action is too much“ Dupuy. The latter ended up almost as drunk as Chuck and me, jumping with his head against traffic signs and sticking post-its with love messages on some girl’s door on the way home. Saturday 10am, I joined the players at the venue (Lane Tech High School) for a short warm-up. The place looked like a Spielberg movie set, with camara equipment everywhere. The athletes were practicing for the contest and doing some interviews. I asked High Rizer who was going to win and he just answered „Guy, Werm, or me…but I’d go with me…“.
6pm, showtime at Lane Tech! The gym was packed. The crowd was armed with an uncountable amount of banners. 95 degrees, due to camera lights!!! „Blind Dunk“ Legend and ESPN host Dee Brown (formerly of the Boston Celtics) introduced the dunkers: Werm, Easy Jumper, High Rizer, Air Bama, Golden Child , Rare Air, Rude boi McCoy, and Jus’ Fly. The judges Chris „Skywalker“ Lowery, Darryl „Chocolate Thunder“ Dawkins and rapper David Banner had to give points in 4 disciplines: Freestyle, Tandem, Vertical and Signature Dunk. The 3 main criteria of judgement were power, creativity and difficulty.
1st Round…Freestyle! 4 dunks in only 30 seconds. In this very first round it became clear that this contest would be a matchup between 3 dunkers: High Rizer, Werm and Guy Dupuy. The latter dominated this first round with a „through-the-legs“ dunk over two people and an impressive windmill dunk over four people (see clip below). The crowd went completely crazy. After this round Guy led ahead of Werm and Rizer.
2nd Round…Tandem! The dunkers had to pass the ball to their partner first and do a dunk in cooperation. High Rizer took over this round with a bunch of powerful alley-oops, which gave him the lead ahead of Werm. „Fly Guy messed up this round and fell back to 6th place…
3rd round…Vertical! The athletes had to dunk over a bar, very similar to the high jump disciplin at track and field athletics. With some anger in his legs, Guy jumped the highest (6’8 feet!)`and won this round ahead of Werm and High Rizer… before the final round Werm led in front of High Rizer and Guy Dupuy.
Final round…Signature dunk! 30 seconds, only one dunk counts…double points for this round! The tension in the air was hard to bear. All of the athletes were highly focused, some prayed while others were stretching their muscles one last time. So $20,000, and ita all comes down to this…
Guy started this round with a „behind-the-back“ alley oop…sick! the crowd had to think of what just happened before they went crazy!!! Now High Rizer….He threw the ball from half court, sprinted to the free throw line, took off and slammed the ball through the rim….oookkkayyy!!! Werm missed a 360-through-the-legs dunk and could not compete for the title anymore…now the score!!! Guy won this final round, which counts double…and finished second by a hair behind Marvin „High Rizer“ Collins….the new slam dunk champion of the world! Congratulations Rize! What would he do with the money? „Probably go for a short trip somewhere, and save the rest for my family at home.“ Responsible!
Just a little detail for the log: The best two dunkers wore the same shoes…the k1x Chiefglider 2! Coincidence? I don’t know… on the question what he would do with the money, he answered he was doing a small trip and would save the rest beacause he had a little kid….responsible!
Stay tuned for more City Slam footage, clips and infos over the course of the next several days…
rizer working out at metro fitness in atl in preparation for the contest…
guy at warm-ups
rizer throws up the “v” before bagging the victory
Lane Tech HS goes Taco Bell
zhe kameras love zhe frenche dönking sensation: “fly”" guy dupuy
rumors state steph has not taken that yankees cap off in 24 days…
espn’s dee brown hands rizer the loot: twenty thousand grand!
the dunking contestans + two globe trotters who can spin the ball on their fingers. (the ringling bros. circus was next door, maybe they got lost…)
rizer’s going to disney world! congratulations rize!!
