Debating The Merits Of That High Schooler’s Vicious Poster Dunk That Went Viral

On Tuesday, high-schooler Jordyn Adams, a football and baseball star in South Carolina, viciously dunked on another student in a video that has since gone viral. Was this dunk an amazing athletic achievement? Or was it no big deal and now it’s being blown out of proportion? Austin Ngaruiya and Dave Lozo debate.

Austin: High-school kids can be ruthless. There was absolutely no reason for Jordyn Adams to cock back a tomahawk so far that he grazed his ankles before dunking on that young man in the red sweatshirt. The victim has a prom to go to, SATs to take, college to attend. The two look to be playing a pretty common playground game, much like a medieval duel, where two kids meet each other at the rim and a crowd waits around to roast the loser. These games normally don’t end with a recreation of Baron Davis dunking over Andrei Kirilenko.

Dave: Yes, how will the kid ever recover from being dunked on by a 6-foot-2 , elite high-school athlete that got a running start at him? If you’re standing still under a basket and someone like Jordyn gets a full running start, this can only end in one way. It was so inevitable they set up two cameras to capture what they all knew would happen. I say the kid who got dunked on is the true hero, giving a valiant effort in the face of unfair odds.

Austin: Two things make this dunk particularly soul snatching. Adams gets the full go-go gadget extension on his tomahawk. He reached so far back that I thought they lowered the rims.

Dave: The only thing lowered in this scenario is the internet’s expectations. We just saw a 16-year-old win multiple gold medals in Olympic swimming, so it shouldn’t be a big deal when a tall teen dunks when he has all his momentum going toward a stationary teen.

Austin: The young man in the red sweatshirt met Adams body to body at the apex of his jump, but like any great dunker, Adams leveled up and detached the young man in the red sweatshirt from his body. The kids in this gym know exactly how to react when they witness a murder on the court. They sent the perfect amount of people to taunt the young man in the red sweatshirt, a group to run around in pandemonium and no one touches Adams. This was a perfectly executed after school activity.

Dave: You know what sort of after-school activity this was? Bullying. The reaction of the kids is also confounding. You knew how this would end! Was the kid under the rim being punished for something? I think I can see him smiling from the second angle, which says this was all in good fun. You are the true star of this video, Red Sweatshirt Kid. I salute you.