Gabe Norwood puts on show in Fiba World Cup

By: Mark Giongco - 10 years ago

Gabe Norwood. SCREENGRAB from YouTube/FIBA

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos know Gabe Norwood can dunk and now the world has seen it too.

Norwood, the Gilas Pilipinas slotman, may have just delivered the best dunk so far in the 2014 Fiba World Cup when he put NBA veteran and Argentina star Luis Scola in a poster during their game early Tuesday morning (Manila time).

Off a turnover by Argentina, Filipino guard Jayson Castro started the fastbreak with the high-flying Norwood streaking ahead on his left side and from that point, a highlight loomed.

Castro gave the ball up to Norwood at a perfect time and the Rain or Shine swingman saw the launch pad and took off just outside the restricted area for the vicious one-handed hammer that sent the raucous Filipino crowd in attendance in a wild celebration.

And there was nothing the 6-foot-9 Scola, who raised both his arms to contest, could do.

The play gave Gilas a 19-12 lead over the third-ranked team in the world with under four minutes left in the opening quarter. A vicious dunk like that is something Filipinos will remember and Argentinians will want to forget.

And as if that dunk wasn’t enough of a highlight, the 6-foot-5 Norwood threw down another one early in the third quarter.

This time, the former George Mason University star skied over the 6-foot-7 Marcos Mata with the left hand.

Because of his incredible display of athleticism, Norwood has been trending on the social media site Twitter until Tuesday afternoon.

Even the official account of the NBA asked its followers if Norwood’s dunk is the best in the tournament so far.

The Argentinians though, got the last laugh with an 85-81 win.

[View the story “Gabe Norwood’s Fiba show” on Storify]