On Sunday night, Brandon Knight was knighted Sir Slammed-On, a dispiriting distinction, by rim-rocking royal, DeAndre Jordan. Knight, whose ego was badly bruised by the body-buckling ballhandling of Kyrie Irving over All-Star weekend, now has a fresh contusion to his confidence to care for. Knight ostensibly tried to draw a charge, since at eight inches shorter than Jordan, he stood no chance of blocking the ball. Thus, one man's alley-oop became another man's alley-oops. Look on the bright side, Brandon: you're probably the only Piston who'll be put on a poster this year. Jordan's not even the most dynamic dunker on his own team, but the crowd and his Clippers co-horts went crazy, with Blake Griffin, the Duke of Dunking, decreeing it the best of year and the best he's seen live, which is high praise from such a high flier.
However, there's another west coast wonder who bounds towards the basket better than Jordan and Griffin: Eddie. Eddie is a 15-year-old sea otter at the Oregon Zoo who can slam dunk. The vet staff discovered that Eddie had arthritis in his elbows, so to exercise his joints, Eddie was taught to a put small ball through a plastic hoop (notice the Trailblazers sticker on the backboard), a trick he learned within a week. Sadly, Eddie won't be showing off his skills to spectators, since the training is therapeutic, not theatrical.
Eddie may not hop as high as Jordan and Griffin (although he does practice proper technique, finishing with both paws on the rim, and is persistent, rebounding his misses), but he's otterly adorable when he does. We think he blows them both out of the water.
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