The Oral History of the 2000 Dunk Contest<\/a>. Here are a few great excerpts from it.<\/p>\nVINCE<\/strong>: I changed my routine in the layup line of the dunk contest.<\/p>\nVINCE:<\/strong> If you watch it on the second dribble (of his 1st dunk) I smacked the ball real hard and that's when I felt like I powered up, you know, like Mario Bros. And I just felt like I gained two, three inches [when I jumped]. When I took off and turned around, the rim was right here [at eye level].<\/p>\nISIAH THOMAS (JUDGE):<\/strong> I don't know what made me jump up like that. It's like -- I'm a fan. There's an old saying in my neighborhood where I grew up. They used to say when you get shot, it was like, \"It shot bolts through my heart, baby.\" And that dunk shot bolts through my heart.<\/p>\nVINCE:<\/strong> They didn't quite tell us about the partner thing, so we didn't practice that at all. I didn't know. So I was like, \"What the heck could I do?\" I had saw in a magazine -- this is about the time the Strength Shoe was out -- and there was a picture of this guy in the air and he had his hands between his legs, jumping up in the air. So I said, \"OK, I'm gonna try it.\" So I said to Tracy: \"Just stand here and bounce it and get the hell out the way.\" He said, \"What are you gonna do?\" I said, \"Just bounce it and back up. About this high.\"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
VINCE:<\/strong> So I walk it off, and if you notice right before I get to the rim, I say, \"Dear God, please don't let me fall off this rim.\" And then I rubbed my arm 'cause I'm like, \"OK, this is gonna hurt.\"<\/p>\nELTON BRAND:<\/strong> It was just like a pause, like, \"OK, is that good?\" And then, \"Whoa, wait! His whole arm is in the rim? Woooooaaaahhhhhhhhh!\"<\/p>\nDIRK:<\/strong> On a good day I could have probably put my wrist in. On a good day.<\/p>\nVINCE:<\/strong> When I woke up that next morning, my whole right arm was black and blue.<\/p>\nIVERSON:<\/strong> Michael Jackson is my favorite artist of all time, and it was like the closest thing to a Michael Jackson concert to me on a basketball level. I don't think a dunk contest will ever be duplicated in that fashion ever again.<\/p>\n