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Being on the opposite end of someone else’s poster is never fun, just ask Frederic Weis. With the Portland Trail Blazers in Los Angeles on Tuesday to play the Clippers, who became associated with the “Lob City” moniker over the last several years (before the departure of several key members of the team), Blazers beat reporter Casey Holdahl took the opportunity to ask the team a humbling question: What’s the worst you’ve ever been dunked on?
Several players chimed in, here are a few of the more entertaining entries:
For Jake Layman, it was a case of friendly fire:
“My worst time being dunked on was by Moe. I’m sure you saw the video, we were in Atlanta. I guess that’s not too bad if that’s the worst. It could be worse, but that’s the worst. I’m smart, I know when to get out of the way… It’s a hard question because if you really get dunked on, you forget about it.”
Warning: language in video NSFW
Moe Harkless had an absolutely viscous dunk on teammate Jake Layman at @trailblazers practice #ripcity pic.twitter.com/VbUBJ6feXI
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) December 30, 2017
Shabazz Napier controversially stated that he’d never been dunked on:
“In a game? No, I’ve never got dunked on in a game. Unless I’m playing around I’m never usually underneath the hoop to get dunked on. I’ve never got dunked on. I’ve dunked on somebody before but I never got dunked on. In high school. Funny thing is I dunked on somebody against St. Mark’s and then the next game against Groton I dunked on someone, an and-one off two feet. I was ecstatic.”
(Note: Napier’s teammates took issue with his claim he’d never been dunked on, with multiple players interjecting that he was dunked on “a few minutes ago.”)
Noah Vonleh, on the other hand, embraces the challenge:
“My first time getting dunked on was in the 7th grade. I was 12 years old and I was playing U-15 down at the Reggie Lewis Center. This kid, he stole the ball from one of my teammates and I ran back trying to chase him down. He went down the court, got real explosive and just cocked it on me, bang and-one. All my boys was trash talking about it for years, but that’s why I have no fear going after dunk attempts. I’m not scared to get dunked on.”
Read what other Blazers had to say in Casey’s full column, available here.