LeBron Dunked On, Kinda

By Chris Le

After being confiscated and kept in a secret vault six miles below Nike headquarters, video of Xavier guard Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James has finally surfaced.

It was a nice dunk — a memorable moment Crawford can certainly brag about.   But, really, that’s it?  That’s what LeBron and Nike wanted to keep in the closet?  Talk about underwhelming.  I haven’t been this disappointed since Matrix: Reloaded.  After all the hoopla and mystery shrouding the tape’s seizure, I was expecting a “Tom Chambers on Marc Jackson“-type dunk.  But Crawford’s slam was hardly a facial LeBron should be embarrassed of.

Firstly, LeBron was not dunked on. That would imply rising above the defender and throwing it down, like the Chambers dunk, or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jUUMCvLPFU.  No, instead, I think the correct phrasing should be: LeBron was dunked beside.  Crawford turned the corner, beating all defenders to the hoop, and LeBron was late in rotating and late in his jump.  It was a half-assed attempt at blocking a shot, and Crawford, to his credit, still dunked the ball with LeBron attached to his hip.

But this dunk would’ve been forgetting after a day.  After 24 hours, the blogosphere would’ve moved on to other breaking news like Brett Favre wiping his ass or something.  The dunk wouldn’t even be a topic on ESPN’s 1st and 10, and that show talks about everything, no matter how mundane.  Even now, it’s kind of a non-story.