And1 Germany’s “Mr. Hangtime” wins German BBL All Star Game Dunk Contest in Empire Mids

[Streetball’s Finest  – 1.28.12] – And1 Germany’s “Mr. Hangtime” wins German BBL All Star Game Dunk Contest in Empire Mids

Inks: FLASH aka g_sk1lls 

Images: Salu Benjamin Tadi (Mr. Hangtime – via Facebook) and Laurent Burkart (And1 Germany Facebook fanpage) and Munich Times (via TMT Sports)

When I think of Eurobasket, my mind is immediately filled with images of long-range shooting bigs with excellent passing ability.  With that line of thought, my knowledge about German basketball is quite limited to Germany’s Finest, their premiere spot for everything streetball in that part of the world (shout-outs to Paul Gudde) and Dirk Nowitzki, the sweet-shooting forward for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA (NBA Finals MVP 2011).  I haven’t really imagined a slam-dunking player from Deutscheland for that matter..so I consider myself schooled by Salu Benjamin Tadi (reppin’ And1 Germany as an official endorser since 2011).

Salu, as he is affectionately called in Germany, is also known as Mr. Hangtime.  He recently won the Beku BBL All Star Game Dunk Contest in a pair of And1 Empire Mids (Black/Gold) last January 21, 2012 in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart.  Competing in a field of 40 (yep, that’s forty dunkers right there), Mr. Hangtime bested 29 other amateurs and 10 professionals in this annual event (including his foremost rival, Tony Gaffney of Telekom Basket Bonn and a former player of the NBA’s Boston Celtics).  Check out the images and videos below: 

All Star Dunk Contest Winner 2012 Salu Benjamin Tadi from AND1 Germany on Vimeo.


Standing at just 6’1” and tipping the scales at a lean 207 lbs, this Munich-based high-flyer boasts of a 42-inch vert (I’d love to see him and Nate Robinson go at it in an international dunk off, seriously).  Salu is also no stranger to showcasing his amazing leaping ability, having already won the Red Bull Slam Dunk contest also in Germany last year.

When asked about his preparations for the 2012 BBL Dunk Contest, Salu replied via email “I trained 5-6 times a week (2 hours for fitness/weights) and 3-4 times a week playing basketball in nearby gyms (spending 2-3 hours with dunk practices.)”  He adds “..at the moment we are working on some special dunks like 360-degrees between the legs or dunking over a car.”

Big thanks to my contact, Laurent Burkart for the news and exclusive images through the And1 Germany Facebook page.  Laurent works for the Marketing and Sales team of And1 Germany and manages their social networking sites (And1 Germany in Facebook), as well as coordinating with team players while handling events, publicity and promotions.  Would also like to thank the Munich Times and TalkBasket.Net for additional details that I used for this article. 

Video courtesy of BekoBBL, shared by TalkBasket.Net

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