Limited live sports? Make your own friendly competition. The St. Joseph boys basketball program had a dunk contest via Twitter to not only stay sharp with their basketball skills, but to keep in contact with their teammates and show off some big time dunks.
Sixteen seeds to crown one champion. It came down to 6’ freshman, Will Kuykendall, and 6’6” junior, Samuel Bazunga in the finals. Kuykendall jumped off a diving board with a twist flip and threw it home on a hoop his dad was holding. Bazunga jumped over two people and threw down a mammoth, one-handed slam.
So it came down to the Twitterverse, and it was a tight race until the end. After north of 500 votes, Bazunga was crowned the winner with 52% of the vote.
Bazunga was the champion, but there were so many creative dunks from Takai Azziz, dressing up as Michael Jordan, to Destry Stevens, putting on a football helmet and throwing the pigskin down from an alley-oop. All in all, the Knights got a chance to connect with their teammates and friends.
“It was good because we were able to reach out to a ton of people to vote for us. We were able to reach out and talk to a few people that we haven’t in a while,” Kuykendall said. “Something to stay distracted. It definitely had some competition to it, so it was pretty fun overall.”
“They’re so used to seeing each other every day and getting their workouts in,” Tom Mott, St. Joseph boys basketball head coach, said. “When you think of a dunk contest, most people have seen the ones the NBA puts on or the college guys; everything is always in the gym. With today’s situation, you have to be creative.”
Only three or four players on the team can dunk on a regulation-sized hoop, so originality was a must.
“I was kind of the underdog. I didn’t really want to win because I didn’t want him to get mad or anything,” Kuykendall laughed.
It was all in good fun, but Bazunga used the competition as practice for when he hits the actual court again.
“It was fun. I tried some new dunks that I might try,” Bazunga said. “Dunking over two people, I never thought I could do that. I was just like, ‘Let’s try some new things.’”
Keep those creative juices flowing and gear up for maybe another virtual dunk contest in the near future.
