NBA Ucla Basketball

Like any basketball fan, I'm completely in awe of the Baron Davis posterization of AK-47 Friday night in Oakland. When you factor in the rowdy crowd, the blowout, the coronary Mike Tirico had on the mic, and the Warriors getting back into the series, it will surely go down as one of the best dunks in NBA playoff history.

But was it even the best dunk of his career? Probably not. I just spent considerable time on Youtube, watching and evaluating Baron Davis facials on an assortment of players. There was a nasty one on Jermaine O'Neal, and a very impressive dunk on Kevin Garnett. Plenty of other players have felt his wrath.

If you ask me, however, to find Baron's best slam, you have to go back to his career at UCLA. Watch him drive the lane, seemingly walk on air, rise above two considerably taller players, and dunk on two bewildered Washington Huskies. It's downright filthy, and reminds me what might have been for Baron at UCLA had he avoided knee problems.

But he doesn't want them to be very good at sports. He'd prefer them to be the kinds of people who are taken last in intramural sports -- you know, the smart kids.

This year, Davis and former UCLA football player Brendon Ayanbadejo formed a group called "We Should Not Be the Only Ones," whose name references the concern that an athletic scholarship could be the lone path to UCLA for African American high school students if things don't change. Something had to be done after this year's UCLA freshman class had fewer than 100 African Americans - the lowest number in 30 years - among the 4,700 new students.

Less than 100, out of 4,700? What are they, Major League Baseball? That is a staggeringly low number. There are truck driving schools in North Dakota that have more black students. But that's a number that should have UCLA very concerned, if not outright embarrassed.

And they owe Baron Davis and Brendon Ayanbadejo (NFL linebacker with the Chicago Bears) a debt of gratitude for noticing, and hopefully, kicking them in the ass to do something about it. And this excellent J.A. Adande article points out, Baron is passionate about the subject, he's got concrete ideas to help spur change, and hopefully, the university will help him out.