Chris Dunk

Chris Dunk (born January 23, 1958, in San Francisco, California), is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Dunk did not start playing tournament tennis until the age of 14. Four years later, at 18, he was a top ten Junior in the country in singles and doubles and won the National Junior Hardcourt Doubles title. He attended UC Berkeley in the fall of 1976 on a tennis scholarship. Dunk became a 2 time All American in 1978 and 1980. In his senior year the CAL tennis team was ranked #1 in the country after winning the 1980 Collegiate Indoor team title. Dunk and his doubles partner, Marty Davis were also ranked #1 doubles team in the country during his senior season. Dunk finished his senior year ranked in the top 15 in singles as well. In 2006, in recognition of his success during college, Dunk and Davis were inducted into the University of California at Berkeley Sports Hall of Fame. Dunk turned pro in September 1980 after playing on the U.S Junior Davis Cup Team.

Chris Paul

Christopher Emmanuel Paul (born May 6, 1985) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The point guard has won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, two Olympic gold medals, and led the NBA in assists four times and steals six times. He has also been selected to nine NBA All-Star teams, seven All-NBA teams, and seven All-Defensive teams.

Paul was a McDonald's All-American in high school. He attended Wake Forest University for two years of college basketball where he helped the Demon Deacons achieve their first ever number one ranking. He was selected fourth overall in the 2005 NBA draft by the New Orleans Hornets and traded to the Clippers in 2011.

Off the court, Paul has served as the National Basketball Players Association president since August 2013. One of the highest-paid athletes in the world, he holds endorsement deals with companies such as Nike and State Farm.

Early life

Paul was born on May 6, 1985 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Charles Edward Paul and Robin Jones. He has an older brother named Charles "C.J." Paul. A former athlete himself, Charles, Sr. taught his sons basketball and football and coached them in various youth leagues throughout their childhoods. Growing up, the Paul brothers spent their summers working at a service station owned by their grandfather Nathanial Jones, to whom Paul attributes many life lessons, and describes as his "best friend".

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 franchised member clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada), and is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA (also known as the International Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues. NBA players are the world's best paid sportsmen, by average annual salary per player.

The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with its rival National Basketball League (NBL). The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.

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.