Have a seat in the Delorean, hop in the wayback machine, slip into the TARDIS – we’re going back, way back in time. How far back, exactly? 20 years ago, to 1995. Toy Story was the first ever wholly computer-generated movie, Alanis Morissette was A Thing, the Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up, Apollo 13 gave us the forever-popular catchphrase “Houston, we have a problem,” and, in space-related news, the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
It was also during this year that two high-school basketball players by the names of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce participated in the McDonalds All-American 3-point shootout and dunk contest, respectively. No, that’s not a typo. Somehow, KG wound up in the 3-point shootout (he even made it to the finals!) Paul Pierce, never exactly renowned for his athleticism, was in the dunk contest.
How KG made the finals is confusing, considering his awful performance in the final round. He clangs several off the rim, bricks a few more, and even airballs one or two. Perhaps the greatest part of these videos is our glimpse into these now-legends before they made their mark on the NBA. The announcers talk about KG as if he’s a borderline prospect, saying they’ve heard some teams entertain the possibility of drafting him, even though Garnett said at the time that he’s going to college. Well, we all know how that turned out, and the NBA and the basketball world at large is a better place for it.
(Via Official Celtics HD)
