If you love dunks and haven’t yet checked out the Ball Up Streetball crew, you’re definitely missing out on some prime time hoops entertainment. Ball Up is the next evolution of the streetball genre, taking over for the once wildly popular And 1 Mixtape Tour, which was featured regularly on ESPN.
Many of And 1’s top performers like The Professor, AO, and even the late Escalade are now entertaining audiences worldwide as part of the Ball Up crew, which airs every Sunday night on Fox Sportsnet.
While the tour has many elite level streetballers, most fans clamor to catch a glimpse of arguably the world’s best dunker, Air Up There, and see just what he will do next. “Air” is a native of Texas and his real name is Taurian Fontenette. He was once a top level HS recruit who played sparingly in college at UTEP, then 2 separate junior colleges before joining the And 1 and Ball4Real Tours in 2005. Two years ago he signed a contract to play for the Dallas Generals of the American Basketball Association.
He first earned the nickname “Air Up There” for his amazing leaping and dunking ability, despite standing only 6’2 and weighing just under 190 lbs. Some people consider him the world’s best dunker as he is reportedly the first player to ever pull off a 720 dunk. He also starred in the 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, winning the prestigious event over a bevy of other top tier dunk artists.
He recently even challenged 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Champion Blake Griffin to a one-on-one dunk-off. Ultimately Blake declined but it made for some great conversation as to who would win if the contest actually took place for the title of “World’s Best Dunker.”
Recently “Air Up There” or “Mr 720“, as he is sometimes called, brought the house down at the latest stop on the Ball Up Tour by pulling off the ever difficult axle-rider dunk, consisting of the combination of a 360 and the Eastbay dunk.
Check it out:
What’s next for Mr 720? Apparently the sky is the limit for Fontenette. Reportedly he’s dead set on pulling off a double 360 Eastbay sometime in the near future.
Check out his most recent attempt:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
