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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class as a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that tally's the winds and losses of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're talking about a career

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Speaker 1: defining moment in basketball history, the time when spud Web,

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Speaker 1: a five ft seven underdog, sore the victory over Dominique Wilkins,

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Speaker 1: a six ft eight tall giant. The day was February eight.

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Speaker 1: Anthony spud Web, the shortest player in the NBA at

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Speaker 1: the time, one first place at a slam dunk contest

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Speaker 1: in Dallas, Texas. The event was held at the Reunion

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Speaker 1: Arena as part of the NBA All Star Game weekend. Web,

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Speaker 1: a point guard for the Atlanta Hawks, stood five feet

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Speaker 1: and seven inches tall, making him the shortest player to

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Speaker 1: ever participate in the competition up to that point. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: by that stage in his career, Webb had already competed

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Speaker 1: in nine other dunk contests, and he had won them all.

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Speaker 1: When he returned to his home state of Texas for

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Speaker 1: the NBA's contest, he was hoping for a tenth victory

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Speaker 1: and a chance to prove yet again that size didn't matter.

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Speaker 1: That was an all too familiar battle, one that Webb

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Speaker 1: had been fighting ever since he was a high school

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Speaker 1: player growing up in Northern Texas. Back then, he averaged

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Speaker 1: twenty six points per game and became one of just

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Speaker 1: ten students out of five thousand to earn a spot

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Speaker 1: on the All State team. Yet, despite his success on

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Speaker 1: the court, webb small stature kept him from being recruited

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Speaker 1: for the big time programs of Division one colleges. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Webb didn't receive a single scholarship offer from any four

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Speaker 1: year college. Instead, he attended Midland Junior College in Texas,

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Speaker 1: where he showed up all the doubters by leading his

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Speaker 1: team to victory in the nineteen eighty two Junior College Championship.

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Speaker 1: This caught the attention of the coaches at North Carolina

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Speaker 1: State University, and it wasn't long before Webb transferred to

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Speaker 1: play for them. He spent the next two years finishing

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Speaker 1: up his college career, and then in Night five, he

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Speaker 1: was chosen by the Detroit Pistons in the fourth round

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Speaker 1: of the NBA Draft. Unfortunately, the Pistons cut Webb before

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Speaker 1: the season even started, and he had to go looking

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Speaker 1: for a new team. One impressive tryout later, he earned

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Speaker 1: a spot on the roster of the Atlanta Hawks. Webb's

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Speaker 1: hard work and perseverance had gotten him all the way

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Speaker 1: to the NBA, but his pickup had come with the

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Speaker 1: lowest possible salary that the league would allow, so he

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Speaker 1: started competing in dumb contests to earn some extra cash.

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Speaker 1: He dominated every contest he entered thanks to his impressive

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Speaker 1: vertical leap, which carried him as high as forty two

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Speaker 1: inches off the ground. Without powerful jumps like that, Webb

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to reach the ten ft high

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Speaker 1: rims on all official baskets. His leg muscles got him

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Speaker 1: most of the way there, but his small frame played

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Speaker 1: a part as well. Since Webb had less mass than

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Speaker 1: most players, it was easier for him to launch himself

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Speaker 1: higher into the air and launch himself he did. By

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Speaker 1: n eighty six, Web had one nine out of nine

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Speaker 1: dunk contests. He wasn't able to compete in the NBA's

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Speaker 1: first or second Slam dunk contests, which were held in

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Speaker 1: eighty four in Night five, but when the third contest

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Speaker 1: came around in eighty six, Webb was a rookie for

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Speaker 1: the Hawks and therefore eligible to compete. He jumped at

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Speaker 1: the chance. After all, if he won, he would take

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Speaker 1: twelve thousand and five hundred dollars in prize money, nearly

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Speaker 1: one fifth of his yearly salary. To make it happen,

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Speaker 1: he would have to out dunk seven other players, most

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Speaker 1: of whom were about a foot taller than he was.

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Speaker 1: Webb's deepest competition came from Dominique Wilkins, a k a.

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Speaker 1: The Human Highlight Film. He was one of Webb's new

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Speaker 1: teammates on the Atlanta Hawks and also the contests defending champion.

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Speaker 1: A year earlier, Wilkins had beat out Michael Jordan's to

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Speaker 1: claim the top spot in the contest, and since Jordan's

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Speaker 1: was sidelined with an injury in six, Wilkins figured he

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Speaker 1: was a shoe in to win first place again. Most

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Speaker 1: of the other players had never competed in the contest

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Speaker 1: like he had, and asked for Webb well. He was

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Speaker 1: five foot seven, no taller than a parking meter. As

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Speaker 1: one newspaper commentator once put it, he didn't seem like

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Speaker 1: much of a threat to Wilkins, but any doubts about

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Speaker 1: Webb's ability were put to rest in the very first round.

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Speaker 1: His first dunk went through the basket, hit him on

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Speaker 1: the head, and then bounced back up through the net,

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Speaker 1: earning him a combined score of forty six from the

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Speaker 1: five judge panel. His second dunk that round was a

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Speaker 1: spinning dunk, which got him a forty eight, and his

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Speaker 1: third dunk, a two handed double pump dunk, was good

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Speaker 1: enough for a forty seven. It was a strong start

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Speaker 1: and gave him an early lead on his opponents. Webb

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Speaker 1: and the other two highest scoring players advanced to the

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Speaker 1: second round, where the champ, Dominique Wilkins, was waiting for them.

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Speaker 1: The scores reset at the start of each round, and

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Speaker 1: after three more dunks apiece, the players with the highest

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Speaker 1: scores were Webb and Dominique Wilkins. In fact, they had

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Speaker 1: tied with a hundred and thirty eight points each. All

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Speaker 1: of a sudden Wilkins victory didn't feel like a sure thing.

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Speaker 1: After a short break, Webb and Wilkins took to the

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Speaker 1: court to square off in the final round for the

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Speaker 1: first of their last two dunks. Both players delivered one

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Speaker 1: handed spin dunks and each earned a perfect score of

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Speaker 1: fifty in the process. That left Web with just one

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Speaker 1: more chance to dethrone the champ. Anything less than another

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Speaker 1: perfect fifty wouldn't cut it. By that point, the more

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Speaker 1: than sixteen thousand fans in the sold out crowd were

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Speaker 1: firmly in his corner. They started chanting Spud, Spud, spud.

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Speaker 1: As Webb moved to half court, preparing for what might

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Speaker 1: have been his best dunk of the night. He threw

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Speaker 1: a one handed, overhand bounced pass that bounced off the

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Speaker 1: wooden floor, connected with the backboard, and then ricocheted back

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Speaker 1: into Webb's outstretched hand. Now nearly four feet off the ground,

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Speaker 1: Webb snatched the ball and slammed it firmly in the basket,

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Speaker 1: much to the delight of the crowd, judges, and other players.

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Speaker 1: Except for maybe Wilkins. It was a perfect fifty, and

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Speaker 1: Webb couldn't help but smile. Wilkins tried to match the

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Speaker 1: perfect score, but the best he could muster was a

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Speaker 1: forty eight, leaving him two points shy of the win.

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Speaker 1: Against the odds, Webb it done it. He bested his

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Speaker 1: six ft eight, two hundred and twenty four pound teammate

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Speaker 1: and took home over twelve grand for his trouble. And

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Speaker 1: don't feel too badly for Wilkins either. His salary was

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Speaker 1: five hundred and eighty five thousand dollars that year, and

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Speaker 1: he took home another seven thousand, five hundred for being

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Speaker 1: runner up. Following his big win, Webb went on to

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Speaker 1: have a successful twelve year NBA career, playing eight hundred

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Speaker 1: and fourteen games for four different teams. He retired from

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Speaker 1: basketball in having paved the way for other NBA players

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Speaker 1: who were under six feet tall, including Muggsy Bogues, Earl Boykins,

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Speaker 1: and Nate Robinson. In fact, Webb actually coached Robinson to

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Speaker 1: victory in the two thousand six Dunk Contest, helping him

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Speaker 1: become the only other sub six ft player to ever

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Speaker 1: win the top spot. In a fun tribute to his mentor,

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Speaker 1: the five ft nine Robinson actually jumped over Webb during

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Speaker 1: his best dunk of the night. Webb later went on

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Speaker 1: to judge the NBA Dunk Contest himself in and he

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Speaker 1: currently serves as the president of basketball Operations for the

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Speaker 1: Texas Legends of the NBA G League. Still, his biggest

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Speaker 1: claim to fame is probably his landmark win over his

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Speaker 1: much more famous, much taller teammate, case in Point in interview,

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Speaker 1: Webb said that quote, one thousand people have told me

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Speaker 1: they were there that night, but the place only holds

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Speaker 1: twenty thousand. It's just something that grows on you. You

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Speaker 1: just get used to it and understand that you're going

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Speaker 1: to have to talk about it everywhere you go. Lastly,

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Speaker 1: because I know you're wondering, Webb's nickname Spud has nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with being squat like a potato. Shortly after

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Speaker 1: his birth in nineteen sixty three, a close friend of

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Speaker 1: Webb's father joked that the boy had a head so

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Speaker 1: big and round that it looked like spot Nick, the

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Speaker 1: famous Soviet satellite that had launched six years earlier. The

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Speaker 1: nickname stuck for years, but when the other kids in

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Speaker 1: his neighborhood had trouble pronouncing the word, it got changed

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Speaker 1: to Spud and everyone liked the sound of it. Much

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Speaker 1: like Webb's victory and the dunk contest, the origin of

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Speaker 1: his nickname is probably another thing he has to talk

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Speaker 1: about everywhere he goes. I'm Gay Blusier, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you have a second and you're so inclined,

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Speaker 1: you can write to us directly at this Day at

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Speaker 1: i heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.

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