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Jonathan Edwards played just a single season of NCAA basketball, averaging around eight points per game for Felician University, a New Jersey school that finished 6-21 at the Division II level.
Three years later, and remarkably, the Waterbury native is now attempting to throw down lobs from rising NBA star Dylan Harper as Shaquille O'Neal and Draymond Green watch on from the sideline. The high-flying Edwards, nicknamed "Airtime," competed in the DUNKMAN debut Tuesday evening, a league founded by O'Neal that bills itself as the first-ever professional dunking league, which was broadcast live on TNT and YouTube.
Edwards was one of 24 dunkers selected to participate in the inaugural DUNKMAN season, with these competitors divided into four groups of six - the winners of each group, along with four wildcards, will advance to the eight-man world championship event Aug. 25 to compete for a $500,000 grand prize. DUNKMAN competitors are graded on a scale from 0-10, based primarily on difficulty and execution among seven total factors, and dunkers can drop their lowest score during each round of the competition.
The first of these four group stage competitions was held at the Overtime Elite Arena Tuesday evening, where Edwards was eliminated after three rounds of dunks.
Edwards' evening started brightly in the opening round, throwing down a no-look scorpion dunk on his first attempt to earn an 8.29 score from the judges, temporarily placing him in third place and above the cutline for the first round of eliminations. The former Waterbry Career Academy star then teamed up with Harper, asking the Spurs rookie to throw a lob off the side of the backboard, but the pair could never get on the same page, as Edwards ran out of time after four attempts.
On his third attempt and in need of an ambitious 8.83 score to stave off elimination, Edwards tried to pull off a behind-the-back slam off a self-lob but was ultimately unsuccessful. Texas native Cam Hazzard was crowned the winner of Group A after posting a remarkable 9.55 score in the final round, securing his place in next month's World Championship.
The 24-year-old is widely seen as a rising star within the competitive dunking community, known for his commitment to creativity above the rim - videos of his dunks have been featured on SportsCenter, Overtime and ballislife, among other prominent social media channels. Edwards has also cultivated a sizable platform for himself on social media, attracting over 55,000 followers on Instagram.
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