Nate Robinson appeared on ‘The OGs’ pod with Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem. Considering Robinson is heralded as one of the greatest jammers, Miller asked him to “give us your five dunkers all time”. The 3x NBA Slam Dunk contest winner lamented that people leave him out of the heralded list. So, he shouted out “Nate Rob” to argue his case as one of the top-five slammer jammers of all time.
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“Nobody has me in their top five ever. Every time somebody picks I’m in never their top five, bro. All the dunks I have done, it’s crazy,” Robinson complained to Miller and Haslem.
After pondering hard on the subject, Nate ‘the Great’ listed Jason Richardson and Zach LaVine as his first choices. Then, he brought up Michael Jordan as his third choice, who had a 48-inch vertical, with some fancy in-game and Slam Dunk contest jams.
The former Knicks PG almost completed the list with Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Kemp. However, Mike Miller intervened to remind him, “What about Vince[Carter]?” Robinson replied, “Vince is number one for me.” The former guard rounded off his list with a name that has flown under the radar more than his own.
“But two, uh oh, Imma have to go, this is going to shake at a lot of feathers. I’m have to do it, it is Desmond Mason. You guys forgot about Desmond Mason. I’m sorry I had to bring him back up,” declared Nate Robinson.
For him, the choice of former Seattle Supersonics Desmond Mason stems from a shared experience of being underappreciated. As a 5’9” player, Nate Robinson captivated NBA fans in a commanding way much like the 5’6” Spud Webb did in the 1980s.
Nate Robinson was the real deal in the 2000s
Nate Rob stands at the top of the All-Star Dunk Winners list with three titles, per NBA.com. The Knicks guard first won it in 2006 All-Star festivities when he defeated Andre Iguodala. His best dunk was the second one in the first round. The 5’9” dunker jumped over 5’6” Spud Webb to throw down an athletic jam with his legs clutched mid-flight.
Next, in the 2009 Slam Dunk contest, he defeated Dwight Howard in the final round to grab the title. In 2010 again, Robinson snatched the award by a hair’s breadth against DeMar DeRozan. Despite Robinson’s epic reverse slam, 49% of people voted for DeRozan while the guard had 51% votes, narrowly escaping with the award.
He joined Michael Jordan and Jason Richardson as the only players to win two Slam Dunk winner awards in a row. Since then, Zach LaVine and Mac McClung have also won the award twice in two years. As of the other names in his list, apart from Vince Carter and Desmond Mason, rest have two titles each in their names.
Jason Richardson bagged the 2002 and 2003 contest, while Zach Lavine has 2015 and 2016 titles. While MJ has also bagged the back-to-back contests in 1987 and 1988, both Desmond Mason and the great Vince Carter have one title each, in 2001 and 2000, respectively.
