This Shit Is Fucking Sick

Julianne Escobedo ShepherdJulianne Escobedo Shepherd|published: Fri 1st April, 15:45

This guy is a college student? Named Ike Nwamu? And he goes to UNLV? And in the video below, he did this fucking sick dunk and hung off the rim for a length of time WITH his arm INSIDE the net. This is called a “windmill elbow dunk,” according to The Cauldron, and yo, it is fucking sick.

Nwamu is a senior from Greensboro, North Carolina, and that in the 96 college games he’s played, he’s scored an average of 9.1 points per game. He executed this sickening display of pure human power at last night’s college slam dunk contest in Cypress, Texas, though apparently there’s another guy on UNLV’s team, Derrick Jones, Jr., who is possibly even better than Nwamu? How can this be? But he was not invited to the slam dunk contest because he’s a freshman, and it’s only open to seniors.

No mind; Nwamu got a chance to shine for UNLV, and he almost took home the title. Unfortunately, he was beat out by Devan Douglas of the University of Mary Marauders (eh?) who is also a monster on the court.


He’s good but, I don’t know, as a dancer I appreciate Nwamu’s grace and elegance more with the windmill elbow dunk, particularly the way he lets his body sway as though mimicking a pas de bourrée in flight. Power and ease is clearly weighted in this contest, and Douglas has much of that, but from a purely visual perspective, there’s a decisiveness to Nwamu’s performance that I’m not entirely getting from Douglas. If basketball doesn’t work out for him, which it very clearly will, he should consider a career on the stage.

Speaking of the arts, Above the Rim is a highly underrated soundtrack. Here is Bell Biv Devoe rapping and singing about basketball in 1992. This song still bangs.

Image of UNLV playing Wichita State via Getty

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