Air Ball (1976); Slam Dunk (1972)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

AIR BALL
   28 March 1976, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 165:
   "One time I even shot an air ball; that's how slippery the ball was."
(There is also a 1975 basketball hit, but I couldn't spot the "air ball" in it in my quick reading.  The first hit here and the next one in 1977 come from college basketball, not the Los Angeles Lakers--ed.)

SLAM DUNK
   7 December 1972, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 108 ad for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED:
   "...Julius Erving, he of the reverse slam dunks."
(That's how I remember it.  Julius Erving, of the ABA Virginia Squires.  So Chick Hearn, broadcasting for the Los Angeles Lakers, probably would not have coined it--ed.)