We have seen so many great poster dunks this year in the NBA like most recently Amare Stoudemire’s facial dunk on Golden State’s Anthony Tolliver, which some people are calling the Dunk of the Year. We’ve even seen one of the game’s greatest players, Kobe Bryant serving up a punch to the groin to the Sixers’ Andre Iguodala, in a bit of dirty play. Now we all know that today’s players are both talented and will do whatever they can get away with to get an advantage on their opposition, but what about our friends overseas playing in the European leagues?
We’ve found a hidden gem combining both, coming from Tony Skinn, playing for Carmatic Pistoia in Europe. For those of you who don’t remember Tony, he was once a talented but controversial player who played a big role in George Mason’s Final Four run back in 2006. But he is perhaps most well known for punching a Hofstra player in the groin during the Colonial Conference Tournament, which caused quite a stir nationally and earned him a 1 game suspension during the NCAA Tournament. Consequentially, the game he missed was his squad’s upset of the highly rated Michigan State in the Big Dance.
After not being selected in the ’07 NBA Draft, Skinn succeeded as a player for a number of teams in the French and Italian Leagues. He even developed quite a cult following for his high flying dunks, earning the nickname, “Air Skinn” from European fans. In a bit of an ironic twist, Skinn’s last attempt at an NBA career came in the Summer of ’07 when he and Loren Stokes, whom he punched as mentioned above, played on the same Orlando Magic Summer league team trying to earn a spot on an NBA regular season roster.
Judging by this video, Skinn is once again living up to his reputation as a “dirty” player by flagrantly kicking a defender, that is positioned under the basket, right in the groin while serving up a poster dunk. Talk about taking one for the team!
Let’s all hope that this “Mr Skinn” keeps his dirty road show in Europe. Without the services of an interpreter of the announcers on the video, there’s no way to know if the dunk actually counted or was called an offensive foul. Regardless, the video and the act was definitely offensive.
Check out Tony Skinn’s Kick and Poster Dunk:
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.
