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Is NBA’s next slam dunk champion in D-FW? Meet the top three dunkers in high school basketball

Local high school basketball coaches were asked to nominate who they thought were the best dunkers in the area.

Update:
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Feb. 21, 2022. We're bringing it back as part of SportsDayHS' best stories of 2022.

No offense to recent NBA slam dunk champions Obi Toppin, Anfernee Simons, Derrick Jones Jr. and Hamidou Diallo, but Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy superstar TJ Caldwell may give you a run for your money in a few years.

“I think he could probably compete in the NBA dunk contest right now as a high school senior,” Faith Family coach Brandon Thomas said. “He can do some special things.”

Caldwell then went out on his home court and did one of the most spectacular dunks you will ever see. And by a teenager, to boot.

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The 6-4 Caldwell had a 6-10 teammate hold the ball behind his head just to the right of the basket. Caldwell ran up and jumped over him, and as he jumped, grabbed the ball with his left hand, put the ball between his legs in midflight, grabbed it with his right hand and dunked it.

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Oak Cliff Faith Family's TJ Caldwell dunks a basketball in Dallas on Wednesday, February 9,...
Oak Cliff Faith Family's TJ Caldwell dunks a basketball in Dallas on Wednesday, February 9, 2022.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

The four-star Mississippi signee did that dunk three times in a row, and every time it looked effortless.

“He’s a freak athlete,” Thomas said. “He has some juice in his legs that he was just born with, and on top of that, he’s flexible enough to do some things in the air that you just have to be a special athlete to do.”

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Dallas-area basketball coaches were asked to nominate who they thought were the best dunkers in the area, and Caldwell got the most votes. The senior guard was followed closely by a pair of McDonald’s All-Americans — 6-4, five-star Kentucky signee Cason Wallace of Richardson and 6-3, five-star Texas signee Arterio Morris of Kimball. Those are the top two recruits in the Dallas area in the Class of 2022.

“He dunks all the time in practice, but he takes it to a whole other level in games,” Kimball coach Nick Smith said of Morris. “He is a fierce competitor. I think that drive in him motivates him to take his dunks to another level.

“His sophomore year, we were at Woodrow Wilson, and he got on a fast break, and he had already dunked like twice, but he threw the ball in front of him, bounced it in front of him, and went up and caught it with two hands and dunked it. I haven’t seen a kid in high school do that, especially at his height. It was amazing.”

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Caldwell, Wallace and Morris were each asked to perform their favorite dunks in front of a videographer at their school so The Dallas Morning News could put together a virtual dunk contest that readers could vote on.

For good measure, Caldwell went out and showed off a couple of other dunks that looked routine for him — a 360 and then one where he bounced the ball off the court to himself and dunked it behind his head. He has perfected his dunking while watching his favorite NBA player, Memphis Grizzlies phenom Ja Morant, who has posterized more than a few defenders in his career.

“I know how to control my jumps,” Caldwell said. “Some people, they are jumping all wild. I’m a real controlled jumper.”

Caldwell, who practiced dunking on a mini-hoop when he was little, was first able to dunk as a seventh-grader, and he first dunked in a game as an eighth-grader. “My first crazy dunk in a game was a windmill,” he said.

The best dunk he has ever done? “The Eastbay — between the legs,” he said.

That is the dunk that Isaiah “J.R.” Rider used to secure the victory in the 1994 NBA slam dunk contest.

Caldwell still has one dunk left on his bucket list.

“The 360 windmill,” he said. “I can do it, I just haven’t done it in a game.”

Kimball basketball player Arterio Morris dunks the basketball during a photoshoot in Dallas...
Kimball basketball player Arterio Morris dunks the basketball during a photoshoot in Dallas on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

Morris displayed a wide repertoire of dunks, jumping over a teammate on one, doing an impressive windmill on another, switching hands in midair on another and finally catching an alley-oop from a teammate off the side of the backboard and slamming it home one-handed. The latter was reminiscent of a dunk that Gerald Green did in the 2013 NBA slam dunk contest, except Green ended his with a reverse dunk.

Morris was first able to dunk in seventh grade, and he likes watching Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets dunk. But Morris doesn’t practice dunking.

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“It just comes natural,” he said. “I don’t have a favorite dunk. I do a lot of dunks — windmill, between the legs, 360, off the backboard.”

He is far from Kimball’s only gifted dunker.

“We’re probably averaging 12, 13 dunks a game,” Smith said. “I have eight, nine guys that can dunk. At any given time, several of them will have three to four dunks apiece every game.”

Wallace said he likes throwing alley-oops even more than he does dunking the ball himself. A lot of those go to four-star Alabama signee Rylan Griffen, the sixth-best recruit in the state in the Class of 2022.

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“We’ve thrown more alley-oops with that combination of Rylan and Cason,” Richardson coach Kevin Lawson said. “Their dunking is as special as it gets. Every single game there is an alley-oop, there is a slam, and it’s new every time. It’s off the backboard, it’s through the legs, an alley-oop backside. It’s a lot of Cason to Rylan. Those two guys are going to be seen for years to come on a lot of TV sets.”

Richardson basketball player Cason Wallace dunks the basketball during a photoshoot in...
Richardson basketball player Cason Wallace dunks the basketball during a photoshoot in Dallas on Thursday, January 27, 2022.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

Wallace’s alley-oops all went to himself in his dunk showcase for The News. He threw one off the backboard and did a windmill, did another windmill off a bounce pass to himself, and for good measure he threw in another dunk where he pumped the ball in midair and dunked it backward.

Wallace said the best dunker he has seen in the NBA is Miami Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo. Wallace doesn’t try to emulate him.

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“I don’t practice dunking,” he said. “I just go off instincts. Whatever comes to my mind. I say I’m going to do it, and I try it. I’ve done a tomahawk windmill. I’m doing a 360 next.”

Wallace first dunked in a game the summer before ninth grade. As soon as he got to high school, his older teammates encouraged him to dunk — but there were some disastrous results early on.

“I was always trying it, but it wasn’t always going in,” he said. “Sophomore year is when I had the mind-set, ‘If I’m going to dunk it, then I’m going to dunk it.’ "

Oak Cliff Faith Family's TJ Caldwell dunks a basketball in Dallas on Wednesday, February 9,...
Oak Cliff Faith Family's TJ Caldwell dunks a basketball in Dallas on Wednesday, February 9, 2022.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

Caldwell, Wallace and Morris beat out a talented list of high risers to make the cut for the final three. The list included Ron Holland (the state’s No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2023) and Anthony Black (a McDonald’s All-American) of defending Class 6A state champion Duncanville, Richardson’s Griffen and SMU signee Alex Anamekwe of McKinney.

Prosper coach Jonathan Ellis called Anamekwe, “One of the best I’ve ever seen.”

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There were plenty of others who received nominations from coaches. Dallas Christian point guard Jalil Brown, who stands only 5-10, got one. So did North Mesquite teammates Cordale Russell and Tamorrian Grigsby, who have combined for more than 100 dunks this season.

Greenhill coach Joey Sims sent in video of Vanderbilt signee Lee Dort grabbing an offensive rebound that was tipped out to him, taking off from just inside the free throw line and throwing down a vicious one-handed dunk as a defender made a half-hearted attempt to block it before smartly getting out of the way.

Mansfield Timberview coach Duane Gregory sent in photos of Chendall Weaver dunking over a McKinney player in the Whataburger tournament and of Donovan O’Day literally jumping over a Fort Worth Dunbar player to throw down a putback dunk in the Mansfield ISD Spring Creek tournament.

Needless to say, the Dallas area is full of epic dunkers. Just watch pregame warm-ups and you will see some moves that will take your breath away, and that get the crowd going crazy.

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“We get in a dunk line and we all scream and get the energy going, and I go last,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell saved the best for last in pregame warm-ups a few games ago, treating the crowd to his signature between-the-legs dunk — the one where he jumps over his 6-10 teammate. That may just be a taste of things to come.

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