NBHHCM 2K11 Salutes Memory of Lorenzo Charles "Dunk of the 80's"

June 28, 2011- The NBHHCM (National Basketball & Hip-Hop Culture Month) Foundation mourns the death of former NC State standout Lorenzo Charles.

Lorenzo Charles is most known for his tip-in dunk from a 30 ft. missed jump-shot by team-mate Dereck Wittenburgh to win to the 1983 National Championship for NC State over the University of Houston 54-52. The Houston Cougars were known as Phi Slama Jama the hi-flyin' dunk attack that were led by future Hall-of-Fame players Clyde "The Glide" Drexler and Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon.

Charles' dunk is considered the greatest impact dunk of the 1980's by the NBHHCM Foundation. NBHHCM Founder Derrick E. Vaughan says, "Lorenzo Charles beat Goliath with their own medicine and helped usher in a new style of above-the-rim play that became part of the NBA. Where talking about college basketball as the trendsetter. The NBA is the next level, but the future of the NBA was in this (1983) Final Four. It has to be considered the "Dunk of the Decade" because it changed the record books and grounded Phi Slama Jama one of the best college basketball teams never to win an NCAA Championship."

Charles was born in Brooklyn, NY just like Michael Jordan, and during the same year (1963). They both attended Universities in the state of North Carolina. The two-players both won NCAA Championships (Jordan UNC-1982). The two-players both hit game-winning shots for their teams to win those championships. Charles wore the #43 during his career at NC State. One of Michael Jordan's childhood idols was David Thompson and he wore the #44 for the same NC State. Thompson introduced Jordan at his 2009 Hall-of-Fame induction speech.
 

The connection between Jordan and Charles is not much more after that. Jordan went on to become the best-player-ever as he laced up a pair of his own signature "Air Jordan" sneakers. Charles played only one NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks (1985-86). There is one last thing that connects Lorenzo Charles with Jordan. Jordan's best friend in the NBA was a guy named Charles Barkley.

The NBHHCM Foundation offers its sincere condolences to the Lorenzo Charles family and friends. He will be missed but never forgotten. When someone says, what is the best dunk of the 1980's everyone should remember Lorenzo, and his dunk to win it all for the Wolfpack at "The Pit" in Albuquerque, NM on the evening of April 4, 1983.

NBHHCM (National Basketball & Hip-Hop Culture Month) has been proclaimed and observed in the month of June since 2009.