Melvin “Helicopter” Levett claims he’s perfected the slam dunk.
He says that during his four years of college basketball, a brief stint in the NBA, a tour of Europe’s basketball circuit and two months with the Harlem Globetrotters, he’s developed a signature style that sets the standard for hanging from the rim.
Chris “Skywalker” Lowery–nine years younger at age 20 and a lot less experienced than Levett–doesn’t care. Levett may say he’s the best, but Lowery has the title to prove it.
Levett, Lowery and 14 more of the nation’s top dunkers will meet at Chicago’s North Avenue Beach beginning Friday at City Slam, a made-for-TV slam-dunk contest featuring some of the country’s best street ball players along with a handful of more-traditional athletes like Levett. They will compete for a $10,000 cash prize, a championship belt and big-time bragging rights. The competition will air on ESPN and ESPN2.
“As a dunker, I was inspired by a lot of guys who played with me and before me, but I’ve never seen anything like what some of these guys can do,” said Kenny Walker, the 1989 NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner and a City Slam judge. “Once you see a windmill, a 360-degree spin, somebody take off from the foul line, you think you’ve seen it all. But these guys have taken it to the next level.”
Lowery will head to Chicago from Brooklyn for the City Slam championship sporting the 2005 title belt on his
waist and a target on his back. He draws his experience from the Amateur Athletic Union and high school hoops. Lowery plays street ball, the high-speed style of basketball born on urban asphalt and made famous in the 1991 movie “Heaven is a Playground.” To win the inaugural City Slam in 2005, Lowery leapt in the air, soared over a Honda Civic and jammed the ball through the hoop. He said he’s entered 67 dunking contests and won every time.
Lowery plays regularly at New York’s Rucker Park, where once a year some of the best high school, college, street ball and NBA players meet in an ultimate basketball faceoff called the Entertainers Basketball Classic. There, he’s taken on opponents with names such as Homicide, Enigma and Ron Artest. It was at a Classic where announcers first dubbed him Skywalker because he seemed to float to the hoop.
“He has a Michael Jordan air when it comes to his competition,” said Rodney Johnson, who has coached Lowery since he first dunked in 6th grade. “Something snaps when he’s on the court; he blocks everything out.”
Lowery enters City Slam as an amateur–meaning if he wins, he cannot accept the purse–because he doesn’t want to risk his NCAA eligibility. Lowery said he plans play college ball this fall and hopes that will lead him to a NBA future.
“I’m an up-tempo player,” Lowery said. “I like to get up and down the court. I’m very competitive. I’m very focused.”
While Lowery looks ahead to possible college and pro-basketball careers, 29-year-old Levett sees those days primarily in his past. His exuberance made the Cleveland native a fan favorite when he played college ball for the Cincinnati Bearcats in the late 1990s. The Detroit Pistons drafted him in 1999, then traded him to the L.A. Lakers, who cut him before the 1999-2000 season.
Levett later played for the Cincinnati Stuff of the International Basketball League, the Kentucky ProCats of the American Basketball Association and European teams in Spain and Budapest. He says the “crowning achievement” of his basketball career was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters in 2000.
“Getting drafted was great,” Levett said, “but the opportunity I got playing for the Globetrotters organization is something I’ll never forget.” Levett got his start on playgrounds and in parks just like Lowery did, and he says that’s where he learned tough, aggressive basketball. He didn’t play organized ball until he got to high school. Levett said his talent and hard work have produced a perfect two-foot takeoff and thrilling slam-dunk style.
“I saw the competition last year, and they obviously put on a good show,” he said. “But I thought, ‘These are the type of things I do.’ Dunking the basketball is my trademark.”
Levett is not favored to finish the contest on top–Lowery and last year’s runner-up, High Rizer, who’s real name is Marvin Collins, are once again the two top prospects. Levett says he’s happy to be the dark horse.
“They’re not thinking about the Helicopter,” Levett said, referencing his nickname. “A helicopter hovers and just watches the scene. … That’s what I’m doing. I’m hovering; I’m watching it all.”
Chicago’s adopted son?
Melvin Levett may be from Cleveland, but he is Chicago’s representative in the City Slam finals–and he’s got more Windy City connections than you might think. Here’s what you need to know about the self-proclaimed dark horse of the dunking competition:
Levett is just 6-foot-3, but he’s says he’s got a 43 1/2-inch vertical leap. That’s an inch and a half better than Michael Jordan.
He has great memories of playing against DePaul while in college. That may be because the record over those four years favored his Cincinnati Bearcats 7-1, but Levett said the Blue Demons and Bearcats “went to war” every time they met.
He’s a huge Ozzie Guillen fan. Levett said Guillen reminds him of his college coach, Bob Huggins, because both have no-nonsense coaching styles and are up-front and honest about what they expect from players.
Cincinnati fans still remember his game-winning slam dunk that gave the Bearcats an upset over No. 1-ranked Duke in 1999. You have to love a guy who beats Duke.
Acknowledging Chicago’s basketball heritage, Levett said he has great respect for the city’s street ball community.He even sends a shoutout to “all those guys making it happen with the opportunities they have; making it happen in the streets, the parks and the playgrounds of Chicago.”
He jokingly claims to be “long-time friends” with the White Sox’s Jim Thome. Levett and a friend used to go to an off-the-beaten-path bar in Cleveland, and he would often see Thome–then playing for the Indians. [ c.l. ]
Just what is street ball?
Street ball works almost the same as college or NBA basketball, former NBA star Kenny Walker said.
There are no refs and no fouls, however. Just athletes playing tough, aggressive basketball.
“There are no rules in street ball,” Walker said. “It’s about your creativity, your trickery, and the more you showboat, the better.”
Part of the street ball showboating includes dunking. The City Slam dunk contest was designed to mimic street ball dunking contests, said Matt Carstens, City Slam promoter.
Street ball’s fame has grown recently, thanks to the And 1 Mix Tape Tour, which travels the U.S. showcasing some of the country’s best street ball players.
These athletes–whether on tour at Madison Square Garden or playing pickup games in a Brooklyn alley–go by nicknames such as Hot Sauce, Baby Shaq and Escalade. Competitors at City Slam this year include High Rizer, JFK and Above and Beyond.
City Slam contestant Melvin “Helicopter” Levett said many street ball players are just as good as athletes he faced while playing college and professional basketball, but for one reason or another they never made it to the next level.
“Street ball makes for tougher basketball players, and their style of athleticism is a little different,” Levett said.
“You have some guys with unbelievable individual talent. They have all the essentials NBA players have.” [ c.l. ]
City Slam
When: Semifinals start at 3 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The final four compete for the title at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Where: North Ave. Beach
The deets: ESPN analyst Dee Brown hosts; former NBA slam dunk champions Spud Webb and Kenny Walker and current Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Damon Jones judge. It’s free and open to the public.
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CLINEHAN@TRIBUNE.COM
