Air Ball (1976); Slam Dunk (1972)

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:13 PM -0400 8/24/02, Rick H Kennerly wrote (incorporating Barry
Popik below):
>|o| (That's how I remember it.  Julius Erving, of the ABA Virginia
>|o| Squires [in 1972].  So Chick Hearn, broadcasting for the Los Angeles
>|o| Lakers, probably would not have coined it--ed.)
>|o|
>
>I'm not invested in the Hearn story either way, but I don't see where an
>east coast NYT quote would have much bearing on whether or not a west coast
>broadcast personality did or did not coin a phrase during a play-by-play.
>Indeed, as someone else recently pointed out, the terms could just as likely
>have filtered up from street games--or high school or college rookies--and
>began circulating as teams traded players and played each other before the
>term was picked up by sports broadcasters or sportswriters.
>
The first time I remember the issue coming up was several years
earlier.  Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who was then still known as Lew
Alcindor, was in his freshman year at UCLA the same time I arrived as
a grad student, in '66.  The NCAA decided to ban (what we now know
as) the slam (dunk), many at the time believing the goal was to slow
down Alcindor's expected dominance of the college game.  The upshot
was that he developed a full repertoire, including his patented sky
hook (most certainly coined OF, if not BY, Alcindor), and dominated
the college game anyway; his legendary coach John Wooden always
claimed that "Lewis's" skills were helped by the ban and how it
forced him to work on his game.  Anyway, it might be useful to check
the L.A. Times issues around '66 (possibly in Jim Murray's columns)
to see how the slam was then described in articles and columns
relating to the NCAA ban (which was, eventually, reversed).  Maybe
"slam dunk" wasn't used, but "slam" was?  I can't recall.

larry