Cedric Ceballos got inspiration for a blindfolded dunk from Magic Johnson.
Ceballos, taking advantage of two final-round misses from Larry Johnson, already had clinched the NBA slam-dunk title Saturday night when Phoenix teammate Dan Majerle tied a black blindfold around Ceballos' eyes."I counted off 20 steps, and when you're running that translates to 10," said Ceballos, reiterating that he could not see. "I thought I had gone too far, but it went in."
Ceballos said he saw Magic Johnson last December shooting some shots in practice with his hand over his eyes. That gave Ceballos the idea of dunking blindfolded, and he did it Saturday with Magic watching from the sideline.
On the blindfold dunk, Ceballos ran three-quarters of the court and dunked the ball home for a perfect score of 50, giving him a score of 97.2 in the finals. Johnson, who had a 98.0 in the semifinals, missed twice in the finals and received only 66.0 points.
Ceballos finished fourth among eight dunkers in the first round, earning the last semifinal berth when 1991 finalist Shawn Kemp and Stacey Augmon missed. Both Kemp and Augmon had higher scores than Ceballos on their first dunks.
"Fortunately, some people started missing and I kept making mine and the crowd liked it," Ceballos said.