Harold Miner, Baby Jordan - HoopMail.HoopsCorner.com

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During the 2007 All-Star weekend, TNT had a feature showcasing the best in-game dunks. On the dunk contest panel they also had some comtemporary heavy hitters. However do you think there is someone they might have left out?

What? Their vintage and comtemporary list wasn't good enough for you? But you're right, Harold Miner was left out. For good reason.

He was the Slam Dunk champ in 93 and 95, great dunker. But he was also nicknamed Baby Jordan.

Harold Miner was drafted 12th overall out of the University of South Carolina by Miami in the 92 draft. His dunking earned him the nickname. But from his NBA performance it was clear that the only thing he and air had in common was that they played similar positions, about the same height and could tear up the rim.

Miner wasn't by far a match for Jordan's offensive or defensive arsenal. He never started a game as a rookie and in the 95-96 season a knee injury ended his season with Cleveland after only playing 19 games for them. He averaged 18 minutes and 9 points per game, over 4 seasons.

They said that after a star career in college he wasn't able to adjust to a lesser team oriented role in the NBA.

We say a rookie on the same team as Glen Rice, Rony Seikaly and Steve Smith should expect to have a diminished role. Especially that he played the same positions as Glen and Steve.

Currently word is that he's living in seclusion as a real estate developer in Las Vegas.
It seems he has cut off contact with his basketball life. So the reason why the NBA and TNT decided to keep him out of that feature was because they realized he wished to remain inconspicuous.

But one thing is for sure. He was as entertaining as any of the best guys featured in that TNT special. Here is a video of him we fetched, from the 93 dunk contest. He's #32 of miami.

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