MIAMI, Fla - When 6-foot-11 Duke-bound Mason Plumlee sandwiched a third ball between the two he had already palmed, Avery Bradley Jr. had probably the same reaction as the national television audience viewing and about the other 4,000 who showed up for Jam Fest at the BankUnited Center on Monday.
“What the? …” he said. “I didn’t know what to think except that if he made it he would have won.”
Avery Bradley had two perfect scores in Monday's contest.
Photo courtesy of Henny Ray Abrams (McDonald's)
But in this 23rd edition of the McDonald’s All-American slam dunk contest, Plumlee couldn’t pull it off.
Though poised and under control, as if he’d mastered this innovative trick many times in practice, Plumlee gave it two tries but didn’t dunk a single ball, let alone three. Let alone six.
One ball slipped into the basket, so the high-flying senior from The Christ School in North Carolina, did a more traditional reverse jam which wasn’t good enough to knock off the 6-3 Bradley, who recorded two perfect scores of 90 in the opening round before winning the finals over Plumlee and Georgia Tech-bound Derrick Favors with a solid score of 164.
Utilizing a variety of spinning, 360 and off-the-backboard jams, Bradley (Findlay Prep, Henderson, Nev.) pulled off a trifecta of firsts with his title – the initial Nevada prep, Washington-state born and Texas-bound McDonald’s All-American to claim the high-profile event.
When asked how he felt considering the impressive list of dunk winners before him, Bradley had trouble catching his breathe: “It feels real good knowing that LeBron won it. … Kobe Bryant. It’s a real honor to be on that list.”
The excitement might have got to Bradley. Bryant never won it, but an equally impressive list did including Jerry Stackhouse (1993), Vince Carter (1995), Baron Davis (1997), Carmello Anthony (2002), James (2003), Candace Parker (2004), Blake Griffin (2007) and last year DeMar DeRozan.
RUNNING ON EMPTY: There were five perfect dunks among the 12 attempted in the early round, but besides Plumlee’s innovative 3-ball try, the most spectacular – and obviously rehearsed – was by Franklin (Wash.) 6-foot guard Peyton Siva.
After recording a perfect score on his initial dunk, the high-flying point guard somehow ripped off his jersey while dribble driving along the baseline. His jam missed, however, the moment couldn’t be recreated. Siva made a pedestrian dunk and failed to qualify for the finals.
Siva made his second shirtless attempt, but not a finals appearance.
Photo courtesy of Henny Ray Abrams (McDonald's)
"I had to try something different," Siva said. "I did everything but make the dunk. I wasn't that upset. I made ESPN's Top 10 list."
One of the nine judges, basketball Hall of Famer and twice winner of the NBA slam dunk contest Dominque Wilkins was asked afterward about the new-age dunk contests. “Looks like their running out of dunks,” he quipped.
LONG RANGE SHOOTERS: In their first-ever 3-point competitions, Notre Dame-bound Skylar “Sky-High” Diggins (Washington, South Bend, Ind.) and Duke-bound Ryan “Machine Gun” Kelly emerged victorious.
Diggins, a lefty with a beautiful high-arching shot, edged Georgetown-bound TaShauna Rodgers 14-12 in the finals. Rodgers was cold most of the contest, but made four of her final five attempts, including the two-point “money” ball. Diggins seemed well on her way, but then struggled on her next-to-last rack, before making two of her final three to prevail.
“I just came out with a mindset to have fun,” Diggins said. “We all made it here because of our shooting, so I just tried to do my best.”
Diggins took a fun approach en route to the title.
Photo courtesy of Henny Ray Abrams (McDonald's)
Kelly barely made it into the finals with a luke-warm score of 12, edging Villanova-bound Dominic Cheek with 11. Both were chasing Oklahoma-bound Tommy Mason-Griffin with 15.
In the finals, Kelly got it going early and often to score 20 and then watched Mason-Griffin miss on his final attempt that would have tied it.
“Yes, I came out struggling – we’d been sitting around all day in a bus,” he said. “But fortunately enough I got into the final round. I didn’t think 12 would get me there. Then I started loosening up.”
Asked about winning his first 3-point contest on a such an enormous stage, Kelly said: “This is the biggest stage a high school athlete can perform on so it’s just a great honor to be selected here,” he said. “Then to be selected to participate in a 3-point contest and win is extraordinary.”
Take that: Kelly was also victorious in a brief game of debate afterward. Unprovoked, Diggins said they had told her team that the boys were lucky that the competition was coed. “We would have won for sure,” she said.
When asked to respond, Kelly simply said: “So who had the most baskets today?”
WIN ONE FOR THE BIGS: McDonald’s canned its “team-ball” shooting competition and replaced it with a skills competition, an obstacle course with a race against the clock.
China Jones showed her speed to win skills title.
Photo courtesy of Henny Ray Abrams (McDonald's)
Both finals were amazingly close as Virginia-bound China Crosby edged Maryland-bound Dara Taylor 40.1 to 41.6, and 6-9 Pittsburg-bound Dante Taylor edged 6-9 Clemson-bound Milton Jennings, 37.0 to 37.2.
All participants had just four or five practice runs on Sunday.
“I just came out and tried to win one for the big guy,” Taylor said.
Said Crosby: “All I was thinking about was getting to the finals. Once there, I just tried to have fun.”
MCDONALD NOTES: Lincoln (N.Y.) senior Lance Stephenson is planning on announcing his college plans at Tuesday’s Media Day. New York’s All-Time leading scorer took part in the 3-point shooting contest but like two others managed just 10 makes. His finalists are reportedly St. John’s, Maryland and Kansas. … Gatorade has announced a press conference Tuesday at 10 a.m. (EST) presumably to pick its National Player of the Year.. … Among the other slam dunk judges was NFL players Desmond Howard and Steve Smith and recording star John Seceda.
