Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 8:00 am  |  37 responses

Fundamental Flare

Emack and Los jump out the gym.

by Justin Walsh

Every hoop head remembers when Vince Carter pulled an east-bay (dunk between the legs) in the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest. Every basketball fanatic remembers how ridiculous it was—how the air in our lungs exited like a punch to the gut. From then on, whether it was a gym in Sacramento, or the legendary Rucker court in N.Y., ballers worked day and night on how to escalate the dunk to new heights.

We have entered a new era in the Art of Dunk: NBA players are no longer the end all for best and most creative jams. In the 80s and 90s you knew with conviction that Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Shawn Kemp and Dominique Wilkins were the best dunkers in the world. Contrast that setting to now. LOS, Emack, Mr. 720 and Team Flight Brothers could hold their own in any dunk contest with NBA elite.

Enter Carlos “LOS” Smothers and Eric “Emack” Robinson. Hailing from California, they are not complacent with a mere 40 inch vert-induced tomahawk. They work on reverse 360 windmills, reverse left handed east-bays, off-the-wall-rock the cradle…the list goes on for days. But they aren’t victim to the ever-growing statistic of players neglecting most of their game, only to work on athleticism. Carlos has a wet jumper from 20 feet+ with a quick crossover and has been on TV for the AND1 Mixtape Tour. Eric has a consistent midrange game with a good sense of tempo in the open court. Off the court, he also is a musician on the rise, with a hip-hop mix-tape out. If all else fails, they still have love for the game.

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  • Gerard Himself Posted: Dec.1 at 8:13 am
    Cool video. Great way to start off the week with.

  • polowthaJon Posted: Dec.1 at 8:33 am
    very nice in deed! im liking the style of the guy with the braids(emack?)

  • Prentice Mcgruder Posted: Dec.1 at 8:44 am
    emack has the cleanest windmill ive ever seen in my life.

  • Lz - Cphfinest3 Posted: Dec.1 at 8:51 am
    Impressive indeed. Then again not really any new never seen before dunks, maybe apart from the dreaded guys windmill 360. Anyways the best dunker still resides in the NBA, just a shame he’ll probably never attend any contest. But show me one of those dunks that LeBron couldn’t top.

  • Prentice Mcgruder Posted: Dec.1 at 8:58 am
    Lz – I think the Lebron is definately the best 6’8″ dunker on the planet, but personally I think hes probably behind T-Dub (whos like 5’9″) and Air Up There (AKA mr.720) Dude can fly. In fact i’d love to see a contest with those 3 guys and vince at age 23 mannn that would be crazy..

  • Boing Dynasty Posted: Dec.1 at 9:37 am
    how tall are these dudes?

  • Niio Posted: Dec.1 at 11:46 am
    These guys can absolutely fly! How tall are they?

  • Arek Posted: Dec.1 at 12:08 pm
    Eamk is 6’3
    Los is 6’0

  • dubstatic Posted: Dec.1 at 1:46 pm
    that windmill by the dude in the dreads was NASTYY!!

  • mike Posted: Dec.1 at 2:19 pm
    So, where’s the part where they jump out of the gym?

  • matt (ballislife Posted: Dec.1 at 2:23 pm
    mike, your a hater plane and simple. Los and Emak are insane. Los makes his dunks in 1-2 tries max which is pretty impressive given his height. Good lookin Slam

  • Nina Posted: Dec.1 at 2:29 pm
    Los is my bebehh.

  • h00paholic@hotmail.com Posted: Dec.1 at 2:41 pm
    WOULD NOT EVEN COME CLOSE IN A NBA DUNK CONTEST…..NO WAY

  • Arek Posted: Dec.1 at 2:46 pm
    Lol lebron james? yo lebron has a lot of hops but no creativity.. i mean watch his high school dunk contest.. all he did was power dunks.. watch his nba dunks, just plain power dunks. and only gerald green, jomario moon, dwight howard and lebron (well just his hops) could beat these 2 in a dunk conest.. notice the could..

  • Cizzo Posted: Dec.1 at 3:38 pm
    oooooooooooooooooooooooWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Justin Walsh Posted: Dec.1 at 4:33 pm
    I would want to see VC, TDUB, Mr. 720, EMAK, LOS, and Gerald Green at their top forever

  • Joel O's Posted: Dec.1 at 5:10 pm
    Wow. These guys can fly, man. Before reading Arek’s comment, I was under the impression they were 6’6 or so, from how high they were getting.

  • Justin Walsh Posted: Dec.1 at 5:29 pm
    @Joel O’s: Yeah, first time I saw how high they got off the ground, I had to do a vision check. It was ridiculous

  • Hursty Posted: Dec.1 at 7:12 pm
    Wow. My Goodness. I still take that 5’10 french bloke over these guys though. Dude jumped over a CAR (among other things). Great video Justin.

  • Justin Walsh Posted: Dec.1 at 8:19 pm
    Hursty, 5’10 french dude…hmm are we talking about Kadour Ziani? He’s Albanian I thought. (I could be wrong). Or are we talking about the french brother/dunker duo? Either way, great dunkers! And Dont give me all credit for that great footage, Arek Kissoyan and Matt Rodriguez make most videos. *Also, which car are we talking, the Porche? haha

  • Arek Posted: Dec.1 at 9:55 pm
    oh and i know we’ve spent it wrong in the video also, but it’s actually Emak (without a c)

  • Dacre Posted: Dec.2 at 1:46 am
    any guy getting up like that at 6 foot is awesome.

  • davidR Posted: Dec.2 at 1:47 am
    east bay 510! was this filmed in the union city sports center?

  • davidR Posted: Dec.2 at 1:52 am
    these guy’s have serious ups if they can get that high considering their heights. that full motion windmill @ 30 seconds & the 360 from the bottom up @ 57 seconds are insane

  • Arek Posted: Dec.2 at 2:32 am
    davidR.. yeah this is at the union city sports center

  • T Money Posted: Dec.2 at 3:31 am
    Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…Josh Smith…

  • Justin Walsh Posted: Dec.2 at 6:10 am
    T Money: which Josh Smith? The HS top 10 ranked junior…Or the NBA lefty?

  • Hursty Posted: Dec.2 at 8:26 am
    Im guessing the Hawks one Justin.
    Also, I WAS talking about Kadour Ziani. Although the flight brothers are niiice. Not sure of it was a porche he jumped over. Certainly wasn’t an Astin Martin though…. :)

  • nastierthanyou Posted: Dec.2 at 8:57 am
    Both of them are light in the a** I’d put 20 on em. The dunks were crazy though. Props given.

  • Arek Posted: Dec.2 at 11:48 am
    Hursty.. Kadour Ziani man… I’ll admit,he’s the godfather of street/freestyle dunking, but all these new dudes are better than him.. and yeah he jumped over a car, but it was a Porsche with the top down lol… anybody with decent hops couldv’e done that

  • matt(ballislife Posted: Dec.2 at 5:39 pm
    if you really want to go back in the day. Hook mitchell was jumpin over cars a decade before ziani ever did. Ziani is one of the first free style dunkers with footage widely spread all over the place but hook was one of the first to be talked about and put no. 2 in slams all time streetball players top 50. I personally witnessed hook jump over a car at 35 about a month from getting out of prison. He was also doing 360′s and windmills and on top of that his overall game was unparalleled and said to be greater than gary payton and jason kidd. However there is one mistake people always seem to ride the fact that hook is not 5’9 but closer to 6 foot.

  • codienesyppin! Posted: Dec.3 at 1:19 pm
    that nigga los is booze as f*#k..

  • itsgucciyadig Posted: Dec.4 at 5:42 am
    i would have to agree with the previous comment.. emack got a better windmil… but los used to be able to do 360 east bay..

  • Justin Walsh Posted: Dec.4 at 10:57 am
    used to be able to? you mean still?

  • Arek Posted: Dec.4 at 11:23 am
    haha no justin its truee.. but rumor has it he’s doing it again

  • codienesyppin! Posted: Dec.8 at 2:52 pm
    You’re wrong arek..los is too fragile for the 360 EB.

  • Arek Posted: Dec.9 at 11:16 am
    too fragile?

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