Spud Webb Fondly Remembers Legendary Jam Session

FRISCO, Texas -- For more than two decades, Spud Webb had talked about winning the 1986 All-Star dunk contest in Dallas, though, he'd never actually seen a full tape of his victory.

With the NBA's All-Star Weekend returning to Dallas for the first time since the 5-foot-7 guard slayed giants, Webb figured he'd get up to speed. So he recently plopped in a tape and watched his legendary day unfold.

"It brought back a lot of memories, but I forgot that Terrence Stansbury was in it,'' Webb said. "I forgot about Gerald Wilkins and Roy Hinson and that guy from the Kings."

That Sacramento guy would be Terry Tyler.

Webb certainly can be forgiven for some memory lapses. Few others remember those guys being in the dunk contest.

The show that Feb. 8, 1986, afternoon at Reunion Arena was Webb vs. Dominique Wilkins, his Atlanta Hawks teammate and the defending champion. In one of the most memorable dunk contests, Webb broke a tie with a 50 on his last dunk and went down in history when it comes to overcoming odds.

"Everybody likes to see the little guys win because he's always the underdog," Dominque Wilkins said. "But, to his credit, he put on a hell of a show."

If anybody this weekend wants to ask about Stansbury, Gerald Wilkins, Dominique's brother, Hinson or that Kings guy, Webb will be ready after watching the tape.

Webb didn't need to watch a replay in order to recall all his dunks. Webb remembers them as if the contest had been 24 hours ago, rather than 24 years ago.

"Doc Rivers said that one day I would really appreciate winning it when I was 50," Webb said, acknowledging his former Hawks teammate who is now Boston's coach was right even if Webb is actually just 46.

Webb, whose 1986 win was even more storybook due to Dallas being his hometown, looks younger than that. He has packed out a few pounds from his once-microscopic playing weight of 133 pounds, but his youthful face still looks pretty much the same.

Webb, who will be joined by a pair of former Dallas Mavericks who didn't dunk a lot in Derek Harper and Rolando Blackman, was an obvious choice to be named one of the judges for Saturday's event at American Airlines Center, which replaced Reunion in 2001 as the Mavericks' home facility.

Other than it being the first dunk contest in Dallas since 1986, Webb being a judge is significant in that the defending champion is New York 5-9 guard Nate Robinson, who grew up idolizing Webb. When Robinson won his first of two dunk titles in 2006 in Houston, Webb actually served as a prop, bouncing the ball high off the court while Robinson retrieved it, jumped over Webb, and scored a perfect 50.

So will Robinson benefit by Webb being a judge?

"Yeah, it's an advantage to him," said Webb, who also served as a judge for the dunk contest in Atlanta in 2003. "I always pull for the little guys. But he has to do something great. I probably give him more heat than anybody would because I know him."

Webb drove down from Dallas for the 2006 contest. He's got a much shorter trip now.

Webb has remained in the Dallas area since retiring from the NBA in 1998, first working as a businessman in construction and real estate. Since last year, he's been president of basketball operations for the D-League's Frisco team, which will begin play next season in the suburb 20 miles north of downtown Dallas.

Webb has spent the first half of this season traveling around the country, observing D-League operations and scouting. He's looking for players who might be overlooked and feels could blossom in the right environment.

In other words, he's looking for guys like himself.

Webb was literally overlooked despite a solid two years at North Carolina State, which followed a stint at Midland (Texas) Junior College. While 5-9 Calvin Murphy and 5-8 Charlie Criss had been undersized jump shooters who had success before retiring in the early 1980s, nobody paid much heed to a 5-7 guy who supposedly could drive to the basket.

Webb was drafted in the fourth round of the 1985 draft by Detroit and eventually waived. He played in the summer of 1985 in the minor-league United States Basketball League.

But the Hawks, the team Criss had played for most of his career and were coached by the diminutive Mike Fratello, decided to give Webb a chance. They picked him up before the 1985-86 season, and he would go on to average a solid 7.8 points and 4.3 assists as a rookie.

Yet it would be his showing during All-Star Weekend that would make Webb a household name.



Even though he had rarely dunked in games in the first half of his rookie season, it was known Webb had a vertical leap he said was between 42 and 44 inches. He said he first dunked in the summer before his senior season of high school when he, amazingly, was 5-feet tall. And he estimates he threw it down about 10 times in his two years at North Carolina State.

When he was named to compete in the dunk contest, many thought he would be a mere sideshow. Even Webb's own team president, Stan Kasten, felt that way.

"People had heard that a guy my size could dunk," said Webb, who wore uniform No. 4. "Stan Kasten came up to me maybe a week or two before the dunk contest and said, 'They want you in the dunk contest and you should wear a point four or something.' That's the decimal before the four."

The serious Webb wasn't about to go for a stunt reminiscent of Eddie Gaedel, the shortest player in baseball history who wore 1/8 during a pinch-hitting appearance for the St. Louis Browns in 1951.

On the day before the dunk contest, Webb was booked to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson so Carson could joke about his small stature. Webb had to fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles and then to Dallas.

"They did take me on a helicopter back and forth (from the airport in Los Angeles to the studio)," Webb said. "But I never got a chance to practice for the contest."

Coming out cold in the first round, Webb eased into the competition. He started with a one-handed dunk.

"Nobody had really seen me dunk," said Webb, who hadn't practiced any of the dunks he tried in the contest since the summer of 1985. "I started out with a one-handed dunk because they probably thought that's all I could do was one dunk. But then after that, I did a double-pump (dunk) and that got their attention ... Probably after my third dunk everybody (at Reunion Arena) was in my corner."

Soon, Webb threw down a slam after he had bounced the ball high off the floor and off the backboard. That really got the attention of the fans.

"The atmosphere was amazing," said Fratello, who was on hand. "People were holding up signs with 10s on them. It was just an electric type of feeling. The dunk contest was different then than it is now."

The dunk contest, then part of All-Star Weekend for the third time, was more anticipated by many back then than the game on Sunday. Legendary women's player Nancy Lieberman remembers being there that day.

"I was with the players down on the courtside," said Lieberman, who, as a Dallas-area resident played a role during that All-Star Weekend and is now the coach of the D-League Frisco team. "It was really fabulous. Every time Spud went to dunk, all you need to know is the players were going crazy. Forget the fans. Dominique was going crazy. Magic (Johnson) was going crazy. Everybody was wrapped up in the euphoria because what Spud was doing was unbelievable."

"Every time Spud went to dunk, all you need to know is the players were going crazy. Forget the fans. Dominique was going crazy. Magic was going crazy. Everybody was wrapped up in the euphoria because what Spud was doing was unbelievable."
- Nancy Lieberman Wilkins was going wild even though he would end up facing Webb in a two-dunk final. On the first dunk of the last round, both players scored a 50. That set the stage, if they didn't remain tied, for a winner-take-all throw down.

"Dominque did the same kind of windmill dunk he had done before and that didn't get the crowd (overly excited)," Webb said of a Wilkins effort that scored 48. "So I knew what I had to do to win it ... I was like, 'I hope I get a 50 because I don't know if I have another dunk in me.' I knew that Dominique had an assortment of dunks."

The tie was broken when Webb indeed got a 50. He bounced the ball off high off the floor, caught it and threw down a reverse jam.

"It was great," Webb said. "Nobody expected me to win. And for it to be in my hometown. I don't care how many championships you win, you don't want anybody saying you folded or stunk it up in the dunk contest in your hometown."

Instead, Webb was the toast of the town. When Webb was holding up the trophy, Fratello said he felt like a "proud father."

Webb went out to eat that night with Wilkins, his good friend and an eventual Hall of Famer. But Webb was the one mobbed by fans, and would appear a few days later on The Arsenio Hall Show.

Wilkins, who won the dunk contest in 1990 in addition to 1985, obviously wanted to win. But if he had to lose, he was glad it was to Webb.

"I hate losing to anybody, even to my mom," Wilkins said. "But Spud is my guy. He's like a little brother to me ... I knew he had unbelievable jumping ability, but I told Spud after a couple of dunks, 'You've been lying to me. Where in the hell had you been practicing. I've never seen those things before.'

"It was amazing for Spud, and I was really happy even though I lost to him. I think it was the defining moment of his career. I really believed that it helped him have staying power in the league as a confidence builder."

Webb did go on to have a solid career, averaging 9.9 points and 5.3 rebounds in 12 seasons. But it took him a while to really get going, not having his first of five straight seasons averaging in double figures until 1990-91.

Webb suffered a right knee injury in 1986-87, which kept him from defending his dunk title and forced him to miss three months. The injury hampered his progress for a few seasons, and Webb also admits the sudden celebrity thrust upon him was initially disconcerting.

"I wasn't used to it, and I didn't want it," Webb said. "I didn't know how to handle it because all I wanted to do was play basketball. ... I was just a low-key, quiet guy. All the publicity of the dunk contest, people were just saying, 'Oh, he's just a sideshow. Can he play?' So that's why after '89 I didn't want to get in any more dunk contests because I wanted to be known as a basketball player, not just somebody who walks into the gym and dunks."

Webb did compete in the 1988 contest, finishing seventh and last when he said he knee still was bothering him, and in 1989, when he felt much better and finished third. But he then vowed to stop dunking in contests and work even harder to develop his game.

Webb improved his shot greatly, and became a three-point shooting threat. After being traded to Sacramento, he averaged a career-high 16.0 points per game in 1991-92 and in 1994-95 led the NBA in free-throw shooting for the Kings with 93.4 percent marksmanship.

Not many people remember those seasons. But thank goodness for smart phones.

"I'll be a bar and somebody will say, 'Hey, you won the dunk contest,'" Webb said. "I'll come back and say, 'Did you know I averaged (16.0) points and led the league in free-throw percentage?' They'll look it up and say, 'Hey, you were a pretty good player.' ... Nobody knows it because I was stuck out in Sacramento, the worst team in the league."

Little guys knew it. Webb has been an inspiration to many throughout the years. After 5-3 Muggsy Bogues entered the NBA in 1987, Webb first expressed some relief he no longer was the league's shortest player.

Webb jokes relief soon turned to exasperation when Bogues kept thanking Webb every time he saw him for helping pave the way for him. Later, it was 5-5 Earl Boykins, Robinson and Dallas' J.J. Barea, who is listed at 6-foot but is shorter, thanking Webb with regularity.

"I'm like, 'You don't need to keep thanking me. You've already thanked me 15 times,'" Webb said.

Webb, though, has had to get used to regular adulation due to remaining in the Dallas area. The mild-mannered Webb constantly runs into people who remember his big dunk-contest win, and he's usually generous with his time.

"I call him, 'The Mayor,'" Lieberman said. "He knows everybody. He's got such a good heart and such a kindness about him."

Webb now works closely with Lieberman. They both talk about how they've overcome great odds, Webb by being undersized and Lieberman by being named in November as the first woman to coach men in a professional league.

Webb is trying to carve out a second career in basketball. His ultimate goal is to be an NBA general manager.

"Donnie (Nelson, a Mavericks executive and co-owner of the Frisco team) was trying to get me into coaching, but I said I'd rather do the front office," Webb said.

In his role, Webb regularly gets inquires from players wanting to try out. You better believe none will be immediately rejected for being too short.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson