Raymond Felton isn’t a name many consider when reminiscing about NBA history’s most athletic undersized guards. At just 6-foot-1, Felton spent most of his career beating his defenders with finesse and creativity — not with high-flying dunks. But the 14-year veteran actually boasted an explosive vertical when he was drafted right out of high school in 2005. He even participated in the McDonald’s All-American Dunk Contest while suiting up for Latta High School in South Carolina.
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Paul George admitted he had never seen the former point guard dunk before watching the high school dunk contest. But when Felton appeared on Podcast P, he claimed that he used to rise up for slams pretty often early in his career. His legs were still fresh during his first couple of years in the NBA, so he could dunk fairly easily as a youngster.
Felton’s play style would change forever after one dunk attempt in particular, though. The 40-year-old explained that he didn’t stop dunking in the league because he couldn’t — he stopped because he simply didn’t want to dunk anymore.
Felton said he stopped dunking after an unfortunate mid-air sequence against a 300-pound Shaquille O’Neal, “when Shaq knocked me out the air.” He described the incident, saying, “I was still in Charlotte, but that was maybe four years in, and I was done with dunking after that. Straight floaters, that’s it. I’m not trying to go catch nobody.”
George laughed, referring to this as a moment “from the old NBA,” when centers took pride in ensuring no one scored in their paint. Until this moment, though Felton was still dunking with reckless abandon. “My first two years, I was still dunking like I was a youngin’ … I was just, you know, still playing on the rim,” he shared.
“My third or fourth year, I just went up thinking I’m a youngin’ in the league. I’m trying to make a name for myself. You know, you dunk on Shaq that’s gonna be big right there,” Felton continued. “That man knocked me out the air … The crazy thing is, they didn’t even call a foul … Then he stepped over me and said, ‘Welcome to the league, young fella.'”
The Diesel comes from that old school mentality where inside buckets are never supposed to come easy. Shaq was past his prime by this point, but aging hadn’t changed his dogma. Felton seemed more surprised about the no-call than he did about not finishing the slam over the legendary center.
Shaq was never afraid of gifting new players their “welcome to the league” moment, especially when they tested him at the rim. That sort of initiation doesn’t usually deter players from trying to dunk again. But in Felton’s case, Shaq is why he spent most of the next decade playing low to the ground.
