Nate Robinson poisons the competition in the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest

Nate Robinson / Keith Allison

Nate Robinson, also known as “Nate the Great”, was the victor in the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, which took place in Phoenix, Arizona. The reason he is called “Nate the Great” is because of his ability to wow the crowd. Standing at merely 5’9” and weighing 180 pounds, Nate impresses with his 43.5" vertical leap. The Seattle, Washington native has won multiple Slam Dunk Contests, but his most memorable one is by far this one because he dunked over Dwight Howard, who stands at a towering 6’11” and weighing in at 265 pounds.

Robinson was able to beat J. R. Smith and Rudy Fernández, in addition to the aforementioned Dwight Howard.

The interesting thing about this contest is that Robinson arrived prepared in the final round of the contest. As soon as Dwight Howard changed into the Superman gimmick by dunking on a 12 foot hoop, Nate went out and changed into the New York Knicks’ green uniform used on Saint Patrick’s Day, in addition to a lime-green pro-shooter arm sleeve and neon-green Nike Foamposite Lite basketball shoes. The significance of all the green is that he was symbolizing Kryptonite, or in his case, “Kryptonate." Kryptonite is Superman’s only known weakness, implying that Nate was going to weaken Dwight Howard.

Robinson’s signature dunk was the one-handed slam in which he leaped over Howard and cleared him. Howard got the opportunity to follow up with the last dunk. His final dunk was one where he did a Michael Jordan move and jumped from the free-throw line. As impressive as that was for a man of Howard’s build, it was Robinson’s creativity and originality that helped him secure the victory over Howard.