In the dressing room, alone for a moment, Vin Carter he stared at a small monitor brought by a collaborator. Luckily someone recorded it all from the sidelines, using a small video camera. He pressed the “play” button, opened his eyes wide, went back, watched the whole scene again. Seven times. Seven times the same flash, the same a jump that seemed to disprove every law of gravity and common sense. All around, the companions were still screaming, unable to believe what they had just seen insideSydney Arena. He smiled, almost intimidated by his own boldness. It was September 25, 2000, the USA and France were facing each other at the Olympics and history had just changed shape: it took the trajectory of an object flying over a 218 centimeter giant.
“Dunk de la mort” – crush of death – was not born on that parquet, but in the anger of Vince Carter facing an Olympics that, paradoxically, he should not have taken part in. Rudy Tomjanovich, the coach of Team USA, preferred Ray Allen over him, only to later recall Carter when Tom Gugliotta’s injury suddenly left a void in the roster. Carter, who they nicknamed in Toronto “Canadian Air” because of his ability to take off toward the basket, he feels the sting of a missed exception. It is important to show that a place on the team is not a gift, but an obligation. In Sydney he will play like a man who makes no concessions to either his opponents or himself: Averaged 15 points, 25 dunks in 41 baskets. A proportion that says more than any speech.
And then, the unique part.
The action came from a lethargic pass, intercepted after two American errors, almost a counterattack born of a rebound. France is unbalanced, but not helpless: in front of Carter stood Frederic Weis, the pole is 218 centimeters high who the Knicks selected number 15 in the draft and never stepped foot in the NBA due to a number of physical problems. There was no room for preparation, no time to prepare the cue. Carter continued on his way and then stopped at the last sign in the small area. Two quick takes, then he was up. Weis didn’t move, he remained there, impaled, perhaps convinced that the simple fact of occupying that space with his size was enough. But Carter continued to climb. He put his hand on the Frenchman’s shoulder as if it were a step, and passed him. Literally. On the other side of Weis’ body, the iron was waiting for him, which greeted the most daring and dangerous dunk ever. At maximum altitude, his knees were as high as Weis’ head. It really crushed his face.
This was the year zero of virality before virality. There was no YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, no cell phone ready for any action. The video circulated on amateur cameras, then passed from hand to hand like memorabilia. Carter would watch the film again in the locker room, over and over again, with the same amazement as his teammates: “Did you see what you did?”they asked him repeatedly. He didn’t answer: he let the picture do the talking. He didn’t know what to add.
Also because in the following years he would try several times to recreate that moment, calling the top teammates of the franchises he played for under the knife. Every attempt ended the same way: he tripped, fell, got caught. He would say it himself, almost resignedly: “I’m never doing it again”.
Frederik Weistoday away from the fields, remembering that day with disarming tenderness. “I closed my eyes. I don’t know what happened. I only remember Sonko on the bench celebrating as if I had dunked. But I was the one who hit him in the face. That day I understood that humans can fly.” He joked about it, but also admitted a detail that few people know: at the end, Carter will try to jump him again. Weis stopped him with a foul, Carter turned around, smiling at him. A small truce between those who fly and those who remain on the ground.
Twenty years after that night, the moment continues to be celebrated as a founding ceremony. And symbolically, it coincides with the year that Carter has transformed the slam dunk into an artistic language. He has done it at the Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend 2000won with a series of performances that are still considered the absolute pinnacle of the specialty today.
But in Sydney, on top of Weis, it wasn’t just his technical prowess and athleticism. There are challenges to physics, logic and the idea of what is possible on the basketball court.
He looked at her seven times that night. The world is still replaying.
