Time to Move On (Carter High Senior Year)

And so after that, I'm only concentrating on the rim. I'm not even focused on [Weis]. I'm not thinking about what's going on below me on the ground. I just figured he'd rolled out of the way or fell down trying to take the charge, because I didn't feel him anymore. And at that time, I'm thinking I jumped too far out and I'm going to [come up] short, like in that Sprite commercial.

It seemed like he was thinking: I'm too far away. How can I correct this? He just split his legs and went over him. I don't know how he got that extra boost. I think time stopped for a second. Weis may have bent his head six inches to the side, but [Vince] clearly cleared this guy who was 7-foot I had to gather myself, like: I took off outside the box, and I'm looking at the rim like, "Uh-oh.

And when I got there, that's where my excitement came from. Nobody realized that because they didn't know what was going on, what I was thinking. My challenge after I jumped was to just get as close to the rim as I could. I never thought about the guy under me. I had no idea about it. The only thing I remember was [teammate] Mou [Moustapha] Sonko was screaming from the bench like it was me dunking. He was raising his arms like it was us scoring. But it wasn't me doing the dunk. I was on the receiving end.

Vince Carter's dunk made even his teammates' jaws drop. Kevin Garnett and Carter celebrate. Carter landed, shook the voltage out of his legs, flexed his arms and roared as a wide-eyed Garnett maniacally rushed over to celebrate. The dunk gave Team USA a lead. A timeout was called shortly after, sending a dazed Weis to the bench. He was replaced on the court when play resumed. It's going to be on a poster, for sure. I was standing right there in the coach's box when [Vince] took off and exploded over the guy.

And I was sort of in awe for a second. I turned, and Jason Kidd was right next to me, and he was yelling: Jason Kidd , current Milwaukee Bucks coach, who was sitting at the scorers' table: That dunk seemed like it was too easy. It wasn't like he loaded up and that he had to gather his steps, do this and that. It was all in the flow of the game. When he jumped, it was like: He jumped over him. I probably jumped higher than [Vince] did.

It was almost like being at the Rucker Park games. People just almost stormed the court. We had to control our emotions to keep from going on the court. You probably couldn't print what I said. The bench went nuts. KG grabbed [Vince's] head and was doing KG things, where he pushes his head.

5 Brutal Realities Of High School Football (From A Coach)

It really set everybody off. Reaction, starting from beneath the basket and spreading to the opposite end of the globe, ran the gamut. Depending on the vantage point, acceptance came in methodical stages. There was shock, then stunned silence, then disbelief followed by denial, bewilderment and, ultimately, hysteria.

Many agree on one thing: They needed a replay before they could truly process what they had witnessed. Vince Carter , from the middle of the action: I'm on another planet at that moment.

And I'm not even sure who everyone else was or where they were. When I look back on it, I always laugh to myself because I was relieved I didn't embarrass myself. Ray Allen , from near midcourt after he retreated back on defense: It was like I was dreaming. To me, Weis being 7 feet and Vince jumping completely over him was impossible. But he did it. And when he did it, it was like: What did I just see? Did he just do what I think he just did? I almost forgot that I was there on the floor.

Series - Carter High Senior Year

I became a fan watching it from the highlights. I was right behind that! Vince, we've seen him do spectacular moves. That's the beauty of the dunk. It becomes part of your personality. I played with one of the all-time great dunkers, Julius Erving. I was spoiled through the years. I don't think I ever saw Michael Jordan jump over anybody's head during a game. Mike Breen , from alongside Collins calling the play-by-play: I knew it was special when Doug Collins started screaming. He had seen basketball for decades and all of the great players.

When he erupted, I knew that it was something we had never seen before. Georges Eddy , longtime French TV broadcaster, from courtside: You never see that, except in a video game. People say [Weis] should have fouled Carter. But thank goodness he didn't, because we might have missed the greatest dunk ever. Rudy Tomjanovich , from in front of the USA bench: When I saw the replay, it was amazing.

I wasn't sure what the hell happened in real life. The crowd had this delayed response. People were trying to figure out what happened. I've been at the Olympics since I've never seen anything like it. Everyone looked at each other, stunned. You just had to see the replay. It was almost like you refused to believe what you thought you saw.

The only other feeling I can compare it to as a sports writer was at the [] Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight, when Tyson bit off Holyfield's ear. It was a talking point at school. There was a photo where [Vince's] nether region was on [Weis'] head, so that was kind of cool. Everyone was talking about it. Like, was he laying down on the ground? When I saw it, I was like, "Oh my god!

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You were like, "Oh yeah, that nickname is too fitting. Antonio Davis , watching from Toronto: It was like watching my baby brother ask a girl to dance after I've been on him like: You've got to be ready to take that next step and face rejection or whatever it is. And he's the best dunker I've ever seen. Vince Carter , on the moment when reality set in: I didn't know what it looked like until after the game.

It was on one of those personal camcorders. One of my teammates had one of their boys in the stands with one, and they brought it down into the locker room. They were like, "Look at what you did, man. That's when I really saw it. I watched it seven times. That's when it became real. Fifteen years later, few remember how the game ended the United States won For some, everything was a blur. Looking back, Hardaway wasn't even certain of the opponent from that otherwise unforgettable moment. I thought it was the China team.

I really don't know how it played out after that.

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All I know is we won and that was one hell of a dunk -- one of the best of all time. Every so often, Carter and Weis are still asked by fans about it. Or about each other, although they don't believe they've been in the same city -- certainly not the same arena -- together since the USA defeated France a week later in a rematch for the gold medal. Any shame Weis feels from the Carter dunk pales in comparison to the pride of dipping his head alongside his France teammates in to have a silver medal placed around his neck. For Carter, it's the most famous basketball play in a likely Hall of Fame career filled with jaw-dropping highlights.

For Weis, it's the most infamous snapshot of a career cut short by debilitating back and knee injuries. Shortly after his son was born in , Weis battled depression and alcoholism. In , Weis survived a suicide attempt. In recent years, he has gotten back on his feet. A lot of people said he was traumatized and that he never came back from that.

He came back against Luc Longley in the semifinals [win against Australia]. He had a good tournament, and he has a silver medal to show for it. Then he had all sorts of [personal] problems. Now, he's doing well. People who say Fred Weis is a victim are missing the true story. I was unlucky with the NBA.

I had back surgery after I went to [Knicks] summer league. It was killing me. And after that, my agent went to jail. And if something doesn't feel right, you don't have to do it. I moved on to something else. I live in Limoges, [France,] which is where I finished playing professional basketball. I'm with my wife and my son. I have a store, a bar. I like working there. I'm doing some TV, which I enjoy. I don't know from the Olympics if I remember 25 players on other teams, but I'll always remember [Weis'] name because of that dunk. It made him historic in that sense. Someone has to be part of that incredible play.

I didn't think it would be as bad; and it turned out to be because he was drafted by the Knicks. It made it even bigger. I think if he was drafted by anybody else, he would have come over and played in the NBA and had a decent career. Many wonder how social media might have responded to the dunk. But the truest measure of the moment's power lies in how its story is passed down like folklore from one generation to the next. People are still talking about it, and rightfully so. I have a year-old and a year-old, and they asked me to recap it. I witnessed the greatest dunk ever, firsthand.

My son has seen it. Kids now find it. They bring it to me like, "Did you see this? When I bring recruits or players over [to] my house, I have the photo album of that Olympic team in my living room. They flip through it, see the [dunk] and go, "Whoa!

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They freak out and can't believe it. Maybe it's been done before, and if so, I would love to hear about it. I don't know if people ever said, "I want to go out there and do this and see what happens. It would never work. I mean, who does that? Michael Jordan didn't do that. Clyde Drexler didn't do that. David Thompson didn't do that. And [Vince] did it in the Olympics. When Vince came back [from Sydney], he gave me a picture of that dunk.

I kept it in my car for I don't know how long. We were equally horrified to learn that her previous school had cut their football program in favor of improving its chemistry lab. She might as well have suggested that we spend the entirety of the school's budget on building a rocket, and then launch ourselves into the Sun. We'd never dream of cutting football. When I say that things shut down in these towns during high school football games, I mean they really shut down.

Any given town turns into an abandoned dust village straight out of The Walking Dead. If the game is local, then the fire department, EMS, and police will have an absolute skeleton crew on duty, keeping a radio on hand in case a call comes in. When I was playing over a decade ago, one small town hung a "CLOSED" sign over the welcome sign at the edge of town, because literally everyone had left. Hospitals are obviously required to stay open, but even they have radios operating at every nurses' station.

Time to Move On

High school football is such a big deal that not even ER doctors are expected to be completely focused on their jobs during a game. Well, there are only a few cities in Texas that are home to professional sports teams, and Texas is still an absolute monstrosity of a state compared to, say, Connecticut. In order to satisfy their lust for feats of athleticism, most of the small towns filling in the gaps between cities like Dallas and Houston have turned to high school football in hopes of patching up that void in their souls.

As a result, their economies largely revolve around a football season consisting entirely of games played by competing teams of toyear-old children. Schaaf Post Card Company. You saw how big the stadiums are -- attendance at some of the bigger games is higher than that of genuine college bowl games that link references a game in which more than 54, people bought tickets.

Everything revolves around the football team, and on Friday night, your ass better be in the stands. I remember staying home one game day because of the double-whammy of having both an injured leg and a sick grandmother. I listened to the game on the radio while I stayed with her, and at one point, we noticed someone peeking through a window. It was a police officer who had drawn the short straw for duty that night, checking to see if we were a team of burglars.

Because all of the upstanding members of the community were at the football game. To be clear, I led a pretty comfortable life as a football player, even though anyone who wasn't my teammate or a cheerleader was seen as "unworthy" of representing the school. It wasn't until I finally became a coach that I realized that the players are nothing more than a commodity. Maybe your real education doesn't start until you learn that. Thousands of fans can mean huge numbers for merchandising, tickets, and concessions sales.

Pep rallies are little more than fundraising drives. Even the intergalactic ransom we pour into those giant stadiums can be excused as a necessary expense, because the stadiums are basically giant advertisements. Teams make more when they win, and schools care about making money from the games to pay off the expensive football team.

Time to Move On

Football is a legitimate industry-driver here, and everyone reaps the benefits. Restaurants time their hours in order to pick up customers either heading to or from a game. Hotels know they will see a huge spike in business if the opposing teams have made a particularly long drive to play each other.

Local television and radio stations bank on advertising revenue generated by the games. In Texas, high school is both your prime-time television and your religion. The fact is that many coaches have been downright abusive. My dad told me that coaches in his day would refuse to allow any medical personnel to be anywhere nearby, in case they should get the insane notion to delay a game with their "doctoring" nonsense every time a player got a teensy-weensy concussion. To make matters worse, there was a powerful "water is for the weak" mentality among the high school coaching staff that didn't exactly jibe well with Central Texas heat.

Today, coaches are held to a vague set of standards, which is at least better than a system based on flagrant child endangerment. But it took a long line of injuries to get here. Nationally, high school football players have about a 12 percent chance of getting injured. But since everything in Texas is bigger noticing a trend here? Since then, Texas has graciously decided to start trying to take better care of its athletes, and now has some of the strictest rules in the country aimed towards preventing injuries.

For instance, Texas is one of few states to limit tackling drills and contact-based practice. So many players were suffering concussions, or even being killed there were six deaths in alone , that someone finally got with the program. Due to skyrocketing numbers of concussions , we now adhere to the same helmet standards as the NFL , and have implemented rules meant to prevent players from experiencing permanent brain damage while allowing an entire state of adults to live vicariously through them.

If you're wondering why it wasn't the parents raising hell about these issues all those decades ago Sorry, I thought he was tough. Even now, with some regulations being enforced, coaches can still get away with a lot in terms of pushing players past their limits. Short of making creepy upskirt videos of female students , it's nearly impossible to get fired. When you picture football recruiting, the first thing that probably comes to mind are a bunch of big-time college coaches visiting some prize recruit, taking the kid's family out to dinner, and doing everything but buying him a high-performance luxury car to get him to agree to attend their school in the fall.

But high schools can't do that.