On January 25, 1988, Jerome Lane shook up the NCAA with “The Dunk”
It was on January 25, 1988, during the “Big East” clash between his Pittsburgh team and Providence, one of whose assistants was none other than… Jeff Van Gundy. In the counterattack, Jerome Lane (1m98) does not ask any questions: he climbs on top of the defender and goes to explode the circle and especially the basket, which explodes into a thousand pieces!
On commentary, Bill Raftery’s repeated “Send it on, Jerome” remains for posterity, while the dunk is replayed for days on television. It will even cross the Atlantic to be broadcast in… bloopers.
“It was a harmless counter-attack that Sean Miller screwed up by making the right move” the consultant remembers. “It’s absurd things that happen in a match, and I was lucky to be there. I’ve experienced so many great things on commentary, but this one had an impact like I’ve never experienced. It’s amazing.”
After this dunk, the game will be stopped for almost an hour to clean the floor, remove the fragments and of course replace the basket. Spectators will even come to the field to pick up some debris as souvenirs…
“I didn’t realize anything until I turned to Demetreus Gore” Jerome Lane will tell later. “He had his mouth open and then I saw pieces on the ground. It was falling like snow.”
The top rebounder in the NCAA the previous year despite his small size, Jerome Lane joined the NBA in 1988, selected at the end of the first round by the Nuggets. A strong wing by training, he was inches away from making a career, mostly excelling in the CBA then in Europe, before becoming a high school coach in Akron. A very modest career marked by a slam dunk that we’re still talking about almost forty years later.
2026-01-25 13:12:00
