LeBron James might have the most impressive collection of poster dunks of all the stars who have played this game. Over the years, the King has turned many players into screensavers. However, as the game goes, he has also been on the receiving end of it. One of those times was against Jordan Crawford during a 2009 camp, which was, interestingly, organized by James himself. Recently, the clip of LeBron talking about the infamous dunk has resurfaced on the internet.
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In 2009, Crawford was with the Xavier Musketeers men’s basketball team, and he was one of the players who attended King James’ camp. That is where the infamous dunk over LeBron happened, which has been a controversial topic ever since. In the recently resurfaced clip, the four-time NBA Champion can be heard singing praises of the college player at the time. He also said that it’s a common thing in basketball and it shouldn’t be made into a big deal.
LeBron said, “If you like to call yourself a shot blocker, like I like to call myself every now and then, that may happen.” The all-time leading scorer didn’t shy away from admitting that he was posterized by a college athlete. Instead, he went on to praise the youngster for his talents. LeBron said, “Jordan is a really good player. Looking forward to seeing him play this year.” But he couldn’t let that opportunity go without making it clear that when it comes to dunks, nobody is better than him.
He said, “If you do my ratio from me getting dunked on and me dunking on people, I think you can times mine by at least 50.” But it wasn’t just the dunk that was in the news at the time as accusations were being thrown around that Nike tried to seize the footage of LeBron being put on a poster and the unpaid $500 bet.
LeBron James’ dunk controversy
Despite all his talents, Crawford had a short-lived career in the NBA. After being drafted in 2010, he was a part of the league until 2014. Then after a hiatus of three years during which he played in the Chinese league, Crawford came back with the Pelicans in 2017 but was dropped the next year. However, he made the biggest highlight of his career before even stepping foot in the NBA. The same poster that made him part of the headlines in 2009 has remained the biggest achievement of his career.
Recently, while he was working out with Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young, the 35-year-old unveiled that he wasn’t paid the $500 that he was promised for dunking on LeBron. He said, “I need my $500 for dunking on LeBron man. It’s the price that went up. Now it’s like, $550. With interest on that.” It’s been almost 15 years and Crawford is still looking for that $500. Considering the allegations that Nike tried to prevent the tape from seeing the light of day, he might never receive that money.
