Tar Heel Blog

It is a bit ironic that I had posted the video of Michael Jordan’s dunk at the end of a Maryland game in College Park from 30 years ago.

The dunk elicited boos from the Maryland fans then again it doesn’t take much for the Maryland fans to boo. They did so during a sportsmanship announcement before the game and one person yelled “F*ck Carolina” during the national anthem. To the credit of Maryland officials that person was removed.

As for the dunk itself, Roy Williams would have preferred it not happen but acknowledges these are “kids.”  If anyone has an issue with it, the blame is probably more on Kendall Marshall than Henson. Marshall, being the point guard, controls the basketball and its his choice whether to dribble the game out or not. Henson says it was all instinct, maybe the same is true of Marshall who tied his career high in assists on that play.

The broader issue here concerns the lack of “edge” we see with this team sometimes. Dunking the ball on Alex Len once the game is decided when that kind of edge seemed lacking earlier in the game is not the best look. In fact Henson had a dunk attempt earlier in the game what was more open than this one and could not throw it down. The refs called a phantom foul on Len and Henson missed both free throws. There will also be complaints it was classless but viewing the dunk as a function of pissing off Maryland fans more, there will be plenty of people who will have zero issues with it.

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