NBA slam dunk champ gets assist from Naples resident

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NAPLES, Fla. The new slam dunk champ owes a piece of his trophy to an Estero High graduate living in Naples.

Chuck Millan, the founder of the YouTube dunking sensation Team Flight Brothers, helped Indiana Pacers swingman Glenn Robinson III prepare for Saturday’s dunk contest at NBA’s All-Star Weekend, where Robinson came away with the title.

Robinson leaped over teammate Paul George, the Pacers’ mascot and a Pacers cheerleader, snagging the ball from George along the way before finishing with an emphatic, two-hand, reverse jam, giving him a perfect score – and the championship – on his final dunk.

“I’ve been watching the NBA dunk contest my whole life, and to have the winner of the NBA dunk contest come up to me with the trophy and tell me this is yours, that’s the biggest moment I could ever dream for,” Millan said.

Robinson isn’t actually giving up the trophy — Millan said he’ll receive a duplicate in the mail. But Millan feels nonetheless honored to have been an integral part of Robinson’s victory.

He designed the dunks and coached Robinson on how to perform them. Robinson’s first dunk was one of his best. He leap-frogged one man sitting on another’s shoulders, grabbed the ball from the elevated man’s hands and slammed it home.

Robinson, who’d never jumped over anyone before Millan began working with him, edged out Phoenix’s Derrick Jones Jr., who was done in by his failure to complete his difficult first dunk of two in the final round.

Jones, who won the 2014 City of Palms Classic dunk contest in Fort Myers, still managed a perfect score on his second dunk, when he received a bounce-pass in the paint, put it between his legs and threw down a left-handed jam. But Robinson made sure it wasn’t enough.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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