:D:D out loud. That's nonsense, BNR. These guys are incredible athletes. I'm pretty sure they can take off on one foot, do a 2-hand dunk and land safely without grabbing the rim. Heck, when I was teaching elementary physical education we had 9' high rims in our gym. Many times the kids would ask me to do some dunks. I was a good athlete but certainly not incredible. It was no problem to throw down one-handed, two-handed and reverse dunks without grabbing the rim to stay balanced. That player was not off-balance when he did the two-hand dunk. He lost control of his body after he grabbed the rim. I was born at night; but it wasn't last night.

Like I said, when the discussion comes up, it almost always a 2-handed, 1-foot take off...I dunked on 10ft rims, in real games. ;)

When you are going at full game speed, not teaching gym class :p, your body is going in a direction (is inertia the correct term), and then both wrists hit an object that is above your head while the bottom half is still moving full speed.

You don't have to believe me. Just watch the game (college/HS games) and notice the times a dunker grasps the rim, and what kind of dunk it is.

You know this from your experiences dunking that way in games, or it's just your opinion?

#2 I am in the camp that I think he was trying to make sure he didn't faceplant on the landing. He let one hand go, felt he was going to fall, so he hung on with the other a little longer to regain balance. This is my opinion based on the short clip, but if there were concerns with this player or the game prior to this that the crew felt they needed to nip any unsporting acts early, then I could see why it was called.

Oh, I believe you and I've seen many, many dunks. Some, the player needed to grasp the rim for safety and others quite unnecessary. I happen to agree with the official who called the T and as I said earlier, we had two very similar ones in a recent game, both were assessed T's and we didn't think twice about it. And... it's not "gym class" it's "physical education" and the correct word is "momemtum." :)

If you're going to correct someone... be correct.

The player kicks out his legs just before letting go of the rim. This looked unsporting to me at first, but now I can't tell whether it was just to keep his balance or not.

I feel like Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump getting called out because I can't dunk. Have I ever dunked on a 10 foot goal in a game? No. Have I played many of no foul rules on an 8 foot goal whose sole purpose was to dunk? Sure. Did we grasp and or hang on the rim? Almost all the time however it was because it was cool and not to prevent injury in most cases. I'm not saying that one never needs to grab the rim. I'm saying that in 90%+ of dunk they could never grasp the rim, including running one foot take off two hand dunks.

In the clip in question not only did he never have to grasp the rim for safety but he actually knocked himself off balance by pulling his knees up in the first place.

I'm not even saying they should call it different. I wouldn't care if the rule allowed them to hand up their as long as they want. However the way the rule is currently worded to say "grasp either basket at any time during the game to prevent injury" is not he way it is enforced. In most instances they never need to grasp the rim yet are allowed to.

This guy seems to throw it down without grasping the rim. Of course he was the man.

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