Chuck Burton/Associated Press Hamidou Diallo came into the NBA's Slam Dunk Contest as a player who had impressed league scouts with his leaping ability when he was drafted last summer, but he is unproven at this point in his career. The 6'5" rookie guard is averaging 4.2 points and 11.4 minutes per game for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and while he can grow into a bigger role with the team, he has a long way to go. But there is no doubt about his leaping ability or creativity after his explosive performance in the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night. While competitors Dennis Smith Jr., Miles Bridges, and John Collins were unable to come up with championship performances, Diallo performed one of the most memorable dunks in recent memory to earn the 2019 championship. Diallo wowed the crowd with his second dunk of the night. The 20-year-old called Hall of Fame center Shaquille O'Neal out of the crowd and positioned the big man a few feet in front of the basket. It was clear that Diallo was going to attempt to leap over the 7'1" Shaq as he performed the dunk. Just the thought of this was a bold move, and the crowd wanted to see how it played out. The confident Diallo took off from somewhere around midcourt. As he approached O'Neal, he flew over the big man, with an assist from a slight push on Shaq's shoulder for increased leverage. Diallo made it over the huge obstacle, soared to the rim and dunked the ball down. However, it was not just a dunk. As he finished, he kept his arm inside the rim and hung on up to his elbow. With his other hand, he revealed that he had a Superman shirt under his uniform. Video Play Button Videos you might like It was both tremendous execution and exciting theater. Diallo may be a relatively obscure bench player competing in Oklahoma City, but he made a huge statement with that dunk. "Yeah, I was sure," Diallo said of the Shaq dunk, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com. "I wouldn't have brought him out there if I wasn't sure." He advanced to the second round with Smith, and while he couldn't match the Shaq dunk with the title on the line, he benefited from a series of Smith misses that helped him win the competition. The reaction to Diallo's Shaq dunk was the equivalent of a standing ovation on the Twitterverse. Diallo had two other memorable dunks in the competition. On his opening dunk of the night, he took a pass from Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook and executed a left-handed windmill dunk. On his final dunk, he positioned rapper Quavo to the right of the rim and had him hold the ball slightly above his head. Diallo leaped over Quavo as he grabbed the basketball and slammed the ball down to claim the title. Smith pushed Diallo in the final round when he appeared to get a favorable score from the judges on a good-but-not-great dunk, but the leap over Quavo removed all doubt. It was Diallo's night, and his Shaq dunk is going to live in NBA fans' memories for a long time.<doc-sep>Joe Murphy/Getty Images Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Hamidou Diallo delivered one of the greatest moments in NBA Slam Dunk Contest history on his way to victory during All-Star Saturday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This year's event featured just one participant with prior experience, Dennis Smith Jr. Then a member of the Dallas Mavericks, Smith bowed out in the first round last year after posting an 89 through his first two dunks. Meanwhile, the hometown crowd had a heavy rooting interest with Charlotte Hornets rookie Miles Bridges in the lineup. 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The competition would quickly heat up, though. Bridges redeemed himself, though, by getting the first 50 of the night by taking a lob off the side of the backboard and going 360 with it on his next dunk: But the 33 for the failed attempts dug him an insurmountable hole right off the bat. Next up, Collins became the first participant to go all-out with showmanship: That didn't wind up doing much for the judges, who handed out a 42. The show continued as Smith—who got a 45 on his first dunk—brought out rapper J. Cole to help with his second go. The Knicks guard secured his spot in the finals by showing off his hops and dunking over the Grammy-nominated artist: J. Cole attempted to get in on the action but came up a tad short: At that point, the attention turned to who Smith's opponent in the final round would be—and Diallo made the judges' job easy by channeling his inner Vince Carter by going over the 7'1" Shaq: That absurdness sent the internet into a frenzy: The second time through the lineup in the first round appeared to be setting the stage for a ridiculous finals showdown between Smith and Diallo. Instead, the air quickly was let out of the building as Smith failed to finish his first dunk of the round. Smith scored a questionable 50 on his second dunk to keep the pressure on Diallo, but the 20-year-old Thunder guard was more than ready for his moment, scoring an 88 in the final round: He discussed his jaw-dropping performance afterward: Diallo became the first OKC player to ever win the dunk contest. He is the second player in franchise history to capture the trophy, though, as he joins former Seattle SuperSonic Desmond Mason (2001) as dunk contest champs.<doc-sep>He didn’t exactly have a ton of competition, but it was Hamidou Diallo who shined the brightest during the 2019 NBA Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard won the event with a litany of guest stars beside him, with Russell Westbrook, Migos’ Quavo and Shaquille O’Neal all making appearances. Hamidou Diallo brought it on Saturday at the NBA Dunk Contest, unlike some of his competitors. (Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) Hamidou Diallo’s big night at the Slam Dunk Contest The highlight of the night was undoubtedly the dunk featuring Shaq, in which Diallo jumped over the seven-footer and landed an incredible elbow dunk. Diallo’s three other dunks were solid enough, starting with a left-handed windmill alley-oop from teammate Russell Westbrook. After his finals opponent, New York Knicks guard Dennis Smith Jr., faltered in his first dunk attempt, the Thunder rookie put the competition away with a dunk that brought his eyes clean over the rim, which is something you can do when you have the second-best vertical in the history of the NBA combine. Finally, there was Diallo’s safe but still fun attempt in which he took the ball from Quavo then jumped over the rapper and slammed it home. The best of the rest So Diallo was quite good. The rest of his competitors … not so much. Facing Diallo in the finals was Smith Jr., whose night will mostly be remembered for a) his pretty great dunk over J. Cole and b) just how many tries he needed to land that dunk and his others. The hometown hero, Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges, posted a 50 in the first round, but he couldn’t make up for his other ambitious dunk in which he ran out of attempts. And then, there was Atlanta Hawks big man John Collins. Oh, do we need to talk about Collins. Collins’ first dunk, a reverse slam in which he was touching the other side of the backboard, was decent even if it required a replay to really understand why it was impressive. For his second dunk, Collins called in a group of what appeared to be Tuskegee Airmen … and a replica Wright brothers plane. Cute, as long you land the dunk with nothing going wrong. Story continues Collins landed the dunk, but he also accidentally kicked the plane. That did not win him many points. All in all, a pretty lackluster Slam Dunk Contest between the many tries some players needed and the sheer farce of some other attempts. But at least we had Diallo’s Shaq dunk, which is all we need to remember from this event. More from Yahoo Sports: • Is Anthony Davis willing to play for the Celtics after all? • Wetzel: Colin Kaepernick beat the NFL, but owners might not care • Daytona 500 preview: Storylines, best bets, lineup and more • Low blow ends MMA main event in just 15 seconds<doc-sep>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Props were the name of the game in this year’s Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend. Atlanta’s John Collins brought creativity with an homage to the Wright brothers in North Carolina by leaping over a small replica of a plane. New York’s Dennis Smith Jr. came with gravity-defying leaping ability over J. Cole. Oklahoma City’s Hamidou Diallo brought the biggest man in the building — Shaquille O’Neal — onto the court and jumped over him and dunked the ball, putting his entire arm through the basket a la Vince Carter, then flashed a Superman shirt he was wearing underneath his Thunder jersey. Charlotte’s Miles Bridges wore a throwback Larry Johnson Hornets jersey and did a 360 with a pass off the side of the backboard from teammate Kemba Walker. Diallo and Smith Jr. advanced to the final round, and Diallo won the event scoring 45 points on his final dunk, a two-handed slam after jumping over and grabbing the basketball from rapper Quavo of Migos. Diallo worked with Chuck Millan of Team Flight Brothers to come up with his dunks. "My guy Chuck, he really helped me out, and he knows what I could do. I know what I could do,” Diallo said. “So it was all about being creative. We knew from Day One that this was going to be what was going to happen.” Players have exhausted just about all of the dunk possibilities without the aid of props, so this year’s contestants brought out what, and who, they could. The judges — David Thompson, A’ja Wilson, Alonzo Mourning, Candace Parker and Dee Brown — were liberal with their perfect-score 50s. Smith Jr. jumped over Dwyane Wade and took a pass from Steph Curry for a dunk, but it took him a handful of attempts to complete it. Fans were not happy with the perfect score. Diallo’s dunk over O’Neal earned a 50 from the judges, as did Smith Jr.'s dunk with J. Cole. Bridges also received a 50 for his dunk with Walker. Collins' tribute to aviation only got a 42.<doc-sep>
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Oklahoma City Thunder guard Hamidou Diallo knew he'd have to make an impression to win the slam dunk contest. So he decided to find a way to make the biggest one possible: by dunking over the biggest person in the building. Wearing a Superman shirt underneath his teal Thunder jersey, Diallo threw down a slam after jumping over 7-foot-1 Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal and then hung on the rim by his elbow to steal the show and come away as the winner of this year's competition. "Yeah, I was sure," Diallo said of whether he knew he could dunk over O'Neal. "I wouldn't have brought him out there if I wasn't sure." Diallo's dunk was one of the few highlights of a competition that featured some compelling slams -- including New York Knicks guard Dennis Smith Jr. dunking over rapper J. Cole while wearing Cole's high school jersey, and Atlanta Hawks forward John Collins jumping over an airplane prop -- but also lengthy delays because a few contestants required multiple tries in order to complete their dunks. Two players -- Smith and Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges -- failed to convert one of their attempts. Smith's failed attempt came on his first dunk in the final round, but he earned a 50 on his second dunk of the final, jumping over Dwyane Wade while getting an alley-oop from Stephen Curry. Diallo needed at least a 43 on his second dunk of the final to win the title. After pulling rapper Quavo out of the crowd and having him hold the ball over his head, Diallo leaped over him, took the ball out of his hands and slammed it home to score a 45. As it turns out, Diallo had actually planned on dunking over Wade, his childhood idol, but when Smith used Wade for his dunk, Diallo switched to Quavo. "It was great," Diallo said of winning the competition. "Dennis stole my third dunk. I was going to use D-Wade last. That was my favorite player growing up. But it all worked out." The dunk contest was boring enough that the skills challenge -- typically the least interesting event of the night -- was arguably more compelling.