Nate Robinson is my Hero

For those that aren’t familiar, Nate is the “vertically challenged” rookie point gaurd on the New York Knicks basketball team.

Yesterday, this 5 foot, 7 inch human spring won the slam dunk contest in the unlikeliest twist of events.  Just when it looked like Andre Iguodala was about to coast to a victory in the slam dunk contest, Nate pulled out one of the most flawlessly awesome dunks, EVAR. I absolutely exploded off my chair when he performed the dunk with Spud Webb and completed it on the first try.  Absolutely amazing.  Scared the crap out my wife and cats when I started screaming like a mad man.

I think what’s more amazing is Nate’s physical and mental toughness.  On that first point, the man exerts a ton of energy to be able to be able to propel himself vertically as high as he does against the laws of gravity (I’m not about to bust out the physics equations).  I give the man a great amount of credit for that as he failed to connect, try after try, on several of his dunks.  And yet, there was no quit in his body; there was no way he was going to give up and settle.  You could tell that this man willed his body to do this bidding.  Absolutely amazing.  On the second point, some people would be mentally frazzled by the failure of the first 10 attempts and accept that it was not meant to be.  On the contrary, you could sense that the thought of failure and accepting said failure never crossed Nate’s mind; you could see the determination in his eyes, try after try.

Such determination and physical toughness was electrifying to watch.  I was simply captivated by this slam dunk contest.  The very best that I can recall ever having witnessed and one that will be memorable for generations to come, I think.