Jamario Moon

Jamario Raman Moon (born June 13, 1980) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Guaros de Lara of the Venezuelan Liga Profesional de Baloncesto (LPB). He played college basketball for one season at Meridian Community College and began his professional career with teams in the United States Basketball League and NBA Development League, the Harlem Globetrotters, and Mexican basketball team Fuerza Regia before signing with the Toronto Raptors in 2007. He has since played for the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers and Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA, along with the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA D-League.

Professional career

Early years

After attending Coosa Central High School, Moon attended Meridian Community College where he played one season of college basketball for the Eagles in 1999–2000, averaging 20.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Moon entered the 2001 NBA draft as an early candidate, but went undrafted. After playing for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2001 NBA Summer League, Moon joined the Mobile Revelers for the 2001–02 season. He then joined the Dodge City Legend following the D-League season. After playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz in the 2002 NBA Summer League, he re-joined the Mobile Revelers for the 2002–03 season. He left the Revelers in November 2002.

Moon

The Moon (in Greek: σελήνη Selene, in Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, and, among planetary satellites, the largest relative to the size of the planet it orbits (its primary). It is the second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known (after Jupiter's satellite Io).

The Moon is thought to have formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, not long after Earth. There are several hypotheses for its origin; the most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia.

The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earth's sky after the Sun, as measured by illuminance on Earth's surface. Although it can appear a very bright white, its surface is actually dark, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have, since ancient times, made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, calendars, art, and mythology.

Slam dunk

A slam dunk, also dunk or dunk shot, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball(s) above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by putting the ball directly through the basket with one or both hands. This is considered a normal field goal attempt; if successful it is worth two points. Such a shot was known as a "dunk shot" until the term "slam dunk" was coined by former Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn.

The slam dunk is the most efficient basketball shot. Moreover, it is a crowd-pleaser. Thus, the maneuver is often extracted from the basketball game and showcased in slam dunk contests. Perhaps the most popular is the NBA Slam Dunk Contest held during the annual NBA All-Star Weekend. The seminal incarnation of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest was held during the half-time of the 1976 American Basketball Association All-Star Game.

Dunking was banned in the NCAA from 1967 to 1976. Many people have attributed this to the dominance of the then-college phenomenon Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar); the no-dunking rule is sometimes referred to as the "Lew Alcindor rule."

Slam Dunk Contest

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest (officially known as the Verizon Slam Dunk for sponsorship reasons) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) competition held during the NBA All-Star Weekend. The contest was inaugurated by the American Basketball Association (ABA) at its All-Star Game in 1976 in Denver, the same year the slam dunk was legalized in the NCAA. As a result of the ABA-NBA merger later that year there would not be another slam dunk contest at the professional level until 1984. The contest has adopted several formats over the years, including, until 2014, the use of fan voting, via text-messaging, to determine the winner of the final round.

The very first slam dunk contest was won by Julius Erving of the Nets at the 1976 ABA All-Star Game. The current champion of the NBA Dunk Contest is Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

History

1976 ABA Slam Dunk Contest

On January 27, 1976 at McNichols Sports Arena during halftime of the 1976 ABA All Star Game the first-ever Slam Dunk Contest was held, which was won by Julius Erving of the New York Nets over David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets, Artis Gilmore of the Kentucky Colonels, and George Gervin and Larry Kenon of the San Antonio Spurs. There was a format each competitor had to follow in which they must attempt 5 dunks in a row under two minutes. One from a standing position, one from a distance of ten feet away from the basket (which is basically the bottom of the semi circle that surrounds the free throw line in the Key. The next 3 were freelance positions, one coming in from the left side of the basket, one coming in from the right side of the basket and finally from either corner down the baseline to the basket. They were judged on artistic ability, imagination, body flow as well as fan response.

Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. The team was established in 1995, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. When the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, Tennessee to become the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001, the Raptors became the only Canadian-based team in the NBA. They originally played their home games at the SkyDome (since renamed Rogers Centre in 2005), before moving eastward along Bremner Boulevard to the Air Canada Centre in 1999.

Like most expansion teams, the Raptors struggled in their early years, but after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft day trade in 1998, the team set league-attendance records and made the NBA playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Carter was instrumental in leading the team to a then-franchise high 47 wins and their first playoff series win in 2001, where they advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. During the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, they failed to make significant progress and he was traded in 2004 to the New Jersey Nets.