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76ers’ rookie V.J. Edgecombe rocks the rim and the crowd with posterized dunk over Indiana
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — VJ Edgecombe rocked the basketball with his right hand and posterized a Pacer with a dunk that would have made Dr. J proud.
Edgecombe tumbled to the floor – yes, the 76ers rookie said, he felt that one – sat up and waved toward the bench.
The dunk counted for two points.
It shot to No. 1 on the highlight reel of the short NBA career for the No. 3 overall pick out of Baylor.
Just don’t expect to see a repeat next month during All-Star weekend.
Edgecombe said he won’t participate in the dunk contest, even as he’s making stupendous plays that have the Sixers in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
The Sixers were in awe of the throwdown that helped fuel a second-half comeback in their 113-104 win over the Pacers.
“You must have dunked on someone,” teammate Joel Embiid cracked as the media horde swelled around Edgecombe’s locker. “I haven’t seen this many people around you since you got drafted.”
Edgecombe scored just 11 points — Embiid with 30 points and nine rebounds and Tyrese Maxey with 29 points and eight steals did the heavy lifting.
But it was his slam in the third quarter that rocked the rim and more than 18,000 fans present to root on the Sixers.
The 6-foot-4 Edgecombe took a feed from Maxey above the 3-point line, drove through the lane and soared high above 6-10 Pacers center Tony Bradley for the dunk. He was fouled, but missed the free throw.
“That hurt,” Edgecombe said. “I landed too hard. It feels good to dunk on somebody. But it hurt because I landed bad.”
No surprise for those who follow him — Edgecombe finished in the draft combine’s top 10 with a 38.5-inch max vertical leap.
Edgecombe has been a welcome addition to the Sixers since he scored 34 points in his NBA debut on opening night against Boston and is since only one of three rookies in the league this season with at least 10 games of 20-plus points.
Edgecombe expected he would be sore in the morning, but ready to go when the Sixers complete a back-to-back Tuesday against Phoenix.
Edgecombe laughed as he joked the dunk wasn’t even his best one of the season.
Only no paying customer saw it.
“I’ve dunked on Jo in practice before,” Edgecombe said as he smiled in Embiid’s direction. “I don’t know if you’ve got any clips, though.”
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