Tag: Spud Webb

Similarly, despite his less-than-textbook shooting form — elbows flared out with the ball overhead — Drexler also was one of the first modern players to embrace the 3-pointer. Certainly, he was the first elite player to do so; the others profiled more as shooting specialists. He launched 4.4 triples per game in 1991-92, a borderline obscene total at the time. (Jordan took just 1.3, for example, and even Reggie Miller took just 4.2.) Despite his aerial artistry, Drexler never won a dunk contest, partly because his jams were more graceful, Bob Beamon-esque broad jumps through the air than explosive throw-downs, and partly because his entries were inevitably judged against Jordan’s (or Dominique Wilkins’) in ways that, say Spud Webb’s, were not. For instance, Drexler’s best dunk contest effort was perhaps this inside-spin 360 that he dropped over the rim in 1988, hugely underrated in difficulty but not one to make the crowd gasp.