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NBA Street Series - Dunks!
Dunks. Lams. Jams. Stuffs. What started as the rare "dunk shot" is now a common occurrence in NBA contests and a staple of the nightly sports highlight shows. Any airing of ESPN's "SportsCenter" is guaranteed to contain tens of dunks; some games, it's the only highlights shown.
To add to the cacophony of slam we have NBA Street Series: Dunks, an hour-long program with all the depth of a plastic kiddie pool. Hosted by DJ Clue and his perma-sneer, Dunks is full of run-of-the-mill slam highlights, but nothing that isn't on sports television four times a day.
The program starts with a compilation of dunks interspersed with interview clips that only serve to remind the viewer that players are paid to play the game, not talk about it. DJ Clue, a hip-hop producer best known for a couple of decent mixtapes in the late 90s, is the emcee. "High-flyers" get the first segment, with players such as Amare Stoudemire and Dominique Wilkins featured. "Gliders," or graceful dunkers, are next; Tracy McGrady and Ricky Davis get attention here, along with a piece on Michael Jordan that could easily have been stretched out to fill the rest of the show.
The next segment could have been the most interesting, as Dunks turns its attention to the history of the slam. Instead, we get a passing mention of players like Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving.
The alley-oop is next on the agenda and likely is the best feature of the program. It's the only part of the disc to remind the viewer that, yes, basketball is a team game. Shaquille O'Neal gets his respect in a short segment on power dunkers, Kevin Johnson and Spud Webb are name-checked on high-flying short players and the drive-and-dunk closes out the show. Dunks tries to stay current in the closing credits, adding two clips of NBA savior du jour LeBron James to the montage.
Much of the content of NBA Street Series: Dunks is recycled from the NBA line of television shows, including NBA Inside Stuff and NBA Action.
The DVD
Video:
NBA Street Series – Dunks is presented in full-frame, with some clips matted to widescreen. Even at its most frenetic pace, there are no visible video flaws. The colors come across well.
Sound:
The case says Dolby Digital 5.1, but it's not often that . The bass of the all-hip-hop soundtrack registers well, however, and the track is clean; it's easy to understand the words of each player's interview, even if sometimes you don't understand why those words are in that order.
Extras:
There is one bonus feature on NBA Street Series – Dunks worth talking about: An edited version of the 1985 All-Star Weekend slam dunk contest, featuring Michael Jordan versus Dominique Wilkins in the final. This is what the NBA is capable of on these releases; by dipping into its tape library, it showed us more in this short subject about the history of the dunk with one watershed moment (Jordan taking off from the free throw line in a jam that gave Nike a very good idea for a shoe logo) than in the entire hour-long feature. Instead of recycling old Inside Stuff segments, why not just a disc or two with all the slam dunk contests?
A highlight reel of the "Top 10 Dunks of All Time," heavily geared towards current players also makes the extras list, along with more dunk stories. A couple of players are also asked who they consider to be the league's top dunkers.
Rounding out the package is a bonus CD, identical to the one packaged with Dunks' sister DVD, NBA Street Series – Ankle Breakers. Twista, Jae Mills, T.I., Lil Scrappy and Trillville each take their turn making Kurtis Blow's 1984 classic "Basketball" look that much better.
Final Thoughts:
It's hard to imagine any NBA fan with cable suffering from a lack of dunks in his or her life. NBA Street Series – Dunks does little to give insight as to how players become good dunkers, how they create their dunks or the history of the shot itself. Skip this disc and watch "SportsCenter" instead.
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