To air is human: Sacramento prep scene has featured high-flyers for decades
Jameel Pugh used to occupy air space at and above the rim.
He did so regularly as a teenager in Del Paso Heights, soaring through the thick summer air at local parks, abusing rims that were not of the breakaway variety. The entire backboard swayed upon impact. He did his aerial thing at Grant High School games 20 years ago, and then at Sacramento State and in dunk competitions near and far.
If Pugh isn’t the most dynamic and thunderous dunker in regional history, then he is certainly the most accomplished and recognized. The 6-foot-4 former guard was once named by SLAM Magazine as the best dunker in the world and one of the sport’s all-time great dunk artists. Even NBA all-time rim-wrecker Vince Carter borrowed from Pugh’s repertoire through the luxury of video.
These days, Pugh is grounded. He is identified now by more meaningful titles: father, husband, mentor and counselor at Inderkum High. The smile and good charm is still there if the hops are not. Closing in fast on his 38th birthday, Pugh airs no more, having ruptured his Achilles two years ago in a pickup game while making a move down the lane. Man down, legacy intact.
“I’ll never dunk again! It’s over!” Pugh said with a laugh, “and I’m OK with it. The dunk legacy is always there. I’m flattered. I’m just young enough to have made the YouTube era. My dunks live on!”
Nothing quite electrifies this sport than the emphatic dunk. Sure, it’s only two points, but it is the force in which those points are delivered is what counts, like a home run in baseball. Dunks add an element of entertainment to the sport.
The Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs continue this week, capped by championship rounds at Golden 1 Center on Thursday and Friday. There is a surplus of dunkers dotted across the brackets, including the closest thing to Pugh in Xavion Brown of Division I powerhouse Sheldon, a 6-2 guard who has turned games with his variety of flush jobs.
“I haven’t seen him yet, but have seen some pictures, and wow! He really attacks the rim with aggression,” Pugh said.
Sacramento dunk eras
Darnell Hillman may not have been this area’s first wow dunker, but he represented the best of the high-flyer in the 1960s while at Johnson in an era well before the breakaway rim. At 6-9, Hillman went on to dunking fame in the ABA and NBA, known for his big hair and cool name: “Dr. Dunk.” He won the 1977 NBA dunk contest.
The most noted area dunker in the late 1970s was Rovan Turner of Grant. All of 5-11, Turner stunned spectators who packed into Pacers games early for a peek. He was known as “Elevator Man” and he was known to have touched the top of the square on the backboard.
In the early 1980s, a feared riser was Sean Chambers of Highlands on a team of rim-snappers. Damon Edwards was a dunker for Johnson in the early 1990s, then at Sac State and later with the Harlem Globetrotters. Pugh was so good that he overlaped two decades — Grant in 1999 and 2000.
And now there’s Brown. The relentlessly competitive Sheldon senior leads the Huskies in assists, steals, deflections, rebounds and charges taken. We’re not sure who leads Sheldon in dunks since this is the most bouncy lot in the region, and maybe the most bouncy in area history. It’s a group that includes 6-8 Marcus Bagley, 6-1 Josh Williams, 6-3 guard Xavier Brown and 6-3 forwards Dontrell Hewlett and Darren Tobias. The rims exhale when practice is over and the lights dim.
Nine of the 12 players on the Sheldon roster have dunked. Who does that?
“Each one of us has been dunked on in practice,” Hewlett said. “It happens. We just go at it.”
Brown has soared for one-handed poster jobs, such as against Jesuit in a Delta League game, and he’s made opponents flinch and wince on follow-up slams, alley-oops or while finishing on the break. A solid student still looking for his college destination, Brown doesn’t want to be identified just for dunking. He’s a complete player even if his best offense is well off the floor. He vows to produce his best dunks as he closes out his senior season.
“I’ve had mediocre dunks and I’ve had turning-point dunks, but I haven’t had my best one yet,” said Brown, who aspires to be a lawyer or to get into forensics when his leaping days are done. “I just love to do it.”
The thing about leapers is that the landings are not always secure. It’s a long way down. Against Cosumnes Oaks late in the regular season, Brown landed awkwardly on a slam attempt, crashing in a heap. Everyone in the overflow gym gasped. It looked horrific - maybe a broken leg or shredded ligaments.
But teenage limbs? They recover fast. Brown suffered a bone bruise on his knee. He missed three games and returned with authority in a Division I quarterfinal Friday against Gregori of Modesto, throwing down a followup play to get the home crowd unglued. Bagley also missed games with a foot injury but has returned to terrorize defenses.
“A great dunk can really fire up everyone — players, coaches, fans,” Sheldon coach Joey Rollings said. “I don’t mind the kids dunking. They love it. If they play hard and they play defense, let them dunk, and they dunk.”
Sheldon players get lettermen’s jackets that read, “Dunk you very much!”
The program’s first big-name dunker was DeMarcus Nelson in 2003. A 6-2 guard, he remains the state’s career-leading scorer and played at Duke and overseas. He once took off from just inside the free-throw line for a flush.
Sometimes, when a guy throws down a thunderous throwdown, fans like to pretend they that they are leaving the place in a rush. Nothing else to see here. When Brown landed badly on his miss, his mother was there. Her reaction?
“She ran out of the gym,” Brown said with a laugh. “She didn’t want to see me down.”
Stories that last
The lasting appeal of great dunkers are how players and plays become something of legend, myth or rumor, or a bit of all of it.
Hillman of Johnson fame was once asked while a pro if he could jump high enough to snatch a quarter off the backboard. His reply was as confident as his dunks, “Put a $100 bill up there and see.”
People still talk about the Reggie Rogers dunk for Notre Del Rio against Christian Brothers in 1982, or the how a couple years before that when brother Donald Rogers of Norte thundered in an all-star game. Don and Reggie became first-round picks in the NFL.
“I saw Rogers do a 360 dunk at American River College. I had never seen anything like that from a high school athlete,” wrote Dan Tyree on a Bee Facebook post of dunkers. Tyree is a local photographer big on the ground sport of cross country.
Kevin Johnson in 1983 led the state in scoring at Sac High, sometimes by getting to the rim. He went on to NBA stardom as a 6-1 guard.
“I saw K.J. play multiple times, and he would throw down every year at the Cordova Christmas Classic,” said longtime area coach Scott Sorgea. “Legend has it that Cordova installed springs under the floor in the key to boost everyone’s vertical by 6 inches.”
K.J. has long maintained that the area’s greatest player not named Bill Cartwright was not him but Ernest Lee of Kennedy, a prolific scorer and dunker in 1981 and ‘82.
“Ernest was the truth!” said Spider Thomas, Lee’s coach then.
Cordova had dunkers in the ‘80s, too.
“Andre Green on Cordova dunked on everyone with eyes and lips!” wrote area youth coach Ronnie Cobb on our Facebook post. Cobb’s son, Drew Cobb, was a ferocious dunker at Sheldon and now plays at Long Beach State. “Dodd Murrell of Folsom dunked on everyone for 15 years — parks and gyms.”
In the 1990s, Philip Ricci tore down backboards in parks in Galt, then became a dominating rim guy at Galt High and as a professional overseas. In the late 1990s, Richard Nelson of Encina did a 360 dunk, shattering a backboard. Last decade, Austin Alexander of Capital Christian did a between-the-legs dunk that had fans laying on the floor in stitches. Isaiah Bates of West Campus threw down monsters that people still talk about.
From guys hoops to girls
Sean Chambers of Highlands fame was a dunking marvel for a 33-1 team in 1983, the must-see area team much like Kennedy in the 1980s, Jesuit in the 1990s, Folsom last decade and Sheldon this generation. Chambers’ point guard leader was Mike Bradley, now a Sheldon assistant.
“We’ve had great dunkers in this area, including Sean and X now,” Bradley said. “Man, it makes the game fun.”
The 6-2 Chambers never stopped dunking, doing his thing right on through a long professional career in the Philippines, where he still visits.
“I’m a God there, a living legend!” Chambers said amid laughter. “People work hard for their money there and want to see a good show. I gave them one. Even in high school, I always felt that once I was on the air, I was there with the clouds. Great feeling.”
Chambers coached Brown at Fern Bacon Middle School, where he first started to grab the rim.
“X is something different, great creativity,” Chambers said.
Chambers’ last dunk is coming up this week.
“I turn 55 on February 27th,” Chambers said. “That was always my goal — one last dunk on my 55th, and then I’m done. I’ll be sure to stretch first.”
Chambers anticipated coaching boys basketball after his playing days. The girls game did not interest him. Then he fell in love with it. He is in his 20th year coaching girls, including a stint with his alma mater and now with the region’s top team in Antelope.
“I had never gone to a girls game before and never knew what they were capable of doing,” Chambers said. “Then I saw it — ‘Man, they have skills. They dribble and shoot. They care. They play hard. They don’t dunk, but a great 3 is as good as a boys dunk. I’ll take it!”
Pugh back to Earth
Pugh said tearing his Achilles at 35 jolted him. It made him appreciate this simple things of just being able to walk and how high he could soar. He now enjoys time with 11-month old daughter Emory and wife Josephine. Even now, people regularly recognize him for his exploits.
“They ask, ‘Hey, are you Jameel Pugh, the high-flyer?’ Yes! That starts so many good conversations,” Pugh said. “And then it gives me a chance to update them on who I am now.”
Dunkeshane
Leading vote getters from an unofficial Bee Facebook poll of greatest area high school dunkers:
Austin Alexander, Capital Christian, 2017
Dakarai Allen, Sheldon, 2013
Sam Allen, Rio Americano, 1991
Mike Anderson, El Dorado, 1982
Clint Arnold, Burbank, 1988
Gerald Ayers, Cordova, 1989
Marcus Bagley, Sheldon, current
Matt Barnes, Del Campo, 1997
Isaiah Bates, West Campus, 2016
Gabe Bealer, Antelope, 2013
Xavion Brown, Sheldon, current
Monty Buckley, Christian Brothers, 1991
Michael Bryson, Foothill, 2012
Burnis Chambers, Johnson, 1985
Sean Chambers, Highlands, 1983
Marquese Chriss, Pleasant Grove, 2015
Drew Cobb, Sheldon, 2017
Damond Edwards, Johnson, 1992
Mason Forbes, Folsom, 2018
Kevin Galloway, Sacramento, 2006
Andre Green, Cordova, 1985
Chris Griffin, Jesuit, 1994
Corey Hazewood, Kennedy, 1995
Darnell Hillman, Johnson, 1967
Lloyd Hillman, Johnson, 1992
Marlon Johnson, McClatchy, 1993
Richard Johnson, Sacramento, 1990
Ernest Lee, Kennedy, 1982
Rupert McClendon, Sacramento, 1996
Vic Minnifield, Burbank, 1986
Claude Moore, Valley, 1987
Dodd Murrell, Folsom, 1982
DeMarcus Nelson, Sheldon, 2003
Cameron Oliver, Grant, 2014
Russell Osby, Kennedy, 1993
JJ Polk, Jesuit, 1992
Jameel Pugh, Grant, 2000
Phil Ricci, Galt, 1999
Don Rogers, Notre Del Rio, 1980
Reggie Rogers, Norte Del Rio, 1984
Roburt Sallie, Valley, 2005
Andre Speech, McClatchy, 1992
Yogi Stewart, Kennedy, 1992
Willie Tatum, Burbank, 1985
Deon Taylor, Florin, 1993
Cornelius Thompson, Elk Grove, 1995
Jamie Townsend, Burbank, 1992
Josiah Turner, Sacramento, 2011
Rovan Turner, Grant, 1979
Ronnie Walton, Grant, 1998
Torre Watson, Mira Loma, 1996
Michael Westbrook, Kennedy, 1980
Raymond White, Sacramento, 1990
Ross Wilkins, Dixon, 1987
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 4:00 AM.