CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers legend Larry Nance Sr. knows what makes a good slam dunk.
"I think the best thing for me is to make it the first time instead of throwing it three or four times and then all of a sudden the excitement's worn down," Nance said. "Make it the first time and a lot of movement in the air."
There's a reason Nance was the winner of the first-ever NBA dunk contest back in 1984. It's a memory he holds fondly, not just because he won, but because he got to compete against his then-idol.
"Winning the first one is great. My best experience of that was going against Julius Irving because that's the guy I always wanted to be like, my favorite player of all time, and to go against him to beat him was pretty cool," he recalled.
Nance grew up throwing down dunks. He was born to do it.
"My dad would put up a new goal, I would tear it down," he smiled. "Dr. J was my guy and he was the best dunker I knew so I used to practice all the time trying to be like him."
Nance's slam experience was leaned on Thursday night inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at the Cavs-Hawks game. Nance judged a halftime dunk contest during the break in action.
The contest featured two pro dunkers named Jonathan and Miller. The judges—Nance and Cavs legend Campy Russell as well as mascots Moondog and Sir CC—took the court to give their scores for each dunk.
Nance entered the event ready to hand out 10s, should they be earned.
"Oh, I'm not afraid to give a 10 if I see one. All they got to do is just do a good dunk and I'll pop that 10 up there for sure," he said.
Nance was able to pop that 10 up more than once.
The contest ended in a tie, the two contestants each throwing down a dunk that drew perfect 10s across the board.
Between the legs, windmill, sidearm—some explosive moments had the crowd into it. It was an entertaining halftime full of fun both for the audience and for the very first NBA dunk contest champion judging.
