As Far As Dunking Goes, Dwight Powell Looked Up to One Guy in Canada

Coming off a newly signed deal in Dallas, Dwight Powell reminisces on who he looked up to in Canada in regards to dunking.

With Powell hitting free agency this past summer, Dallas had a choice in whether to let their young forward walk to another team. The Mavs made that choice by giving Powell at four-year deal to lock him in long-term.

Powell looks to battle both Salah Mejri and Quincy Acy for minutes off the bench as the youngster tries to carve out a bigger role in the rotation this season. After Carlisle mentioned yesterday that Powell is spending more time at the five currently, Powell will need to be ready to go at both positions come the season.

Although his weaknesses have been pointed out by both the fan base and coaching staff, one thing that Powell does not struggle with is his ability to dunk the ball. That was evident once again on Thursday when the big fella threw down a monstrous dunk in practice.

In what looked to be a bad pass by J.J. Barea, Powell catches the ball one-handed way above the rim to throw down a big time dunk in practice that brought great reactions from the team.

On day four of camp, I asked Dwight Powell the dunkers he maybe admired growing up and he answered with one certain guy who played in Toronto while Powell was growing up.

“Obviously Vince Carter, being from Toronto. He kind of set the prototype of what it looked like to dunk.”

Powell went on to joke about how he used to TRY to emulate Carter’s dunks growing up. Being from Toronto or not, I think we all tried to emulate Vince Carter at some point on some type of goal.

I quickly asked a follow-up question asking Powell if he would ever do the dunk contest if asked…

With the way the dunk contest has swayed towards lesser known, younger players in regards to their participants; it’s not impossible for Powell to be asked to do such a thing. If Powell throws down a few more highlight worthy dunks in a game, his notoriety around the league will grow quickly.

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Powell was as humble as they come when talking to the media after practice, but if it came down to it, I bet the young forward as a few dunks up his sleeve if needed.