Posterized!

Check out the greatest posterizing dunks of all times:

OK. This video has no Shawn Kemp dunk, so I can’t really take it seriously. (For those of you who are too young, Shawn Kemp was a wild man who used to dunk so hard on people their bone marrow would squirt out of their nostrils.)

Still, this is some evil shit. But pause, let’s think about this for a second. When six-foot-five-ninety-kilograms of elite athlete has a run up, the best thing to do is get out of the way. 99 out of 100 times the ball is going in. Hard. All who get between said athlete and the rim will be posterized–it’s just physics really.

And it is beautiful to watch, it gets the crowd pumped, it gets the adrenaline going, it gets the bench involved, sends a message to the opponent, the TV guys love it, it is just what you need in a tough game.

And the attacking player gets his poster. But here is the thing. We never pause to think about the guy who gets up to contest the play. The fighting spirit, the will to not get beaten, to risk embarrassment (or even injury) to prevent the play or block the shot. He knows that 99 out of 100 times he’ll end up on the floor, but still he gets up to fight.

Far too often I see this and it bothers me. The defender was doing his job. He didn’t simply turn away or give up for fear of being your evening bants. He stuck in and got his ass handed to him. That’s part of the job.

I guess it’s all just a bit of harmless fun. But never forget that guy who did his job, risked being schooled, got schooled, got up and completed his duty. He did his job, got flattened, stood up, and continued.