Jammin’ Downtown Slam King Skies Over Competition

When a 5-foot-11 guy like Matt Foley does what men 6 inches taller cannot, and when the encore consists of flying over his fellow man without so much as consulting gravity, basketball people want to know.

What’s his vertical leap, anyway? Would it be quantified in inches? Yards? Furlongs, perhaps?

“I have no idea what it is,” offered Foley, a 1997 graduate of Central Valley High School and the winner of Saturday’s slam dunk contest at Center Court. “I don’t even want to say, because it could be wrong.”

Let’s just say it’s enough.

Surrounded by an overflow crowd that seemed to carry him higher with each attempt, Foley won an exhilarating dunk-off against 35-year-old Brent Harken, the former world-class high jumper from CV and Washington State University.

On his winning dunk, Foley jumped off two feet from the left side, cleared a hunched-over spectator positioned in the key and threw the ball down mercilessly with both hands.

The 18-year-old Foley did not play basketball at CV this year, but he plans to take his springs to the intramural level at WSU, where unsuspecting defenders figure to be in for a shock.

“I’ve actually never dunked on anybody in a game,” Foley conceded. “I’ve never had a chance - that’s what I’m waiting for, though.”

Perhaps he should try Hoopfest’s media division. (“Paging Dennis Patchin, paging Dennis Patchin…”)

Release, rotation, splash

Off the guard rail, over the chain-link fence, nothing but river.

With the addition of 10 courts on the 400-foot-long Post Street Bridge, at least a dozen Hoopfest basketballs, valued at around $20 apiece, plummeted to a watery death.

By late afternoon, four such balls could be seen dancing in an eddy, trapped by the Spokane River. Moments later, two more balls were seen cascading over the Falls.

Jason Scheibner admitted to launching one of the fateful jumpers, his errant shot caroming off the guard rail and over the recently constructed chain-link fence.

“Maybe if they put in a little higher fences, they won’t lose as many balls,” Scheibner said. “I wasn’t worried about it because it wasn’t my ball - I’m not paying for it.”

Several courts away, Tom Bob offered his own theory on bridge basketball: “The bridge is flatter (than a regular street), so you don’t have to shoot as hard from the corners.”

Not that Bob lacks the requisite strength. At 6-1 and some 250 pounds, the 26-year-old from Plummer, Idaho, helped form one of the most imposing lineups this side of the New York Knicks.

In addition to Bob, there was 24-year-old Sam Eli (5-9, 240) and 23-year-old Wakai Pluff (6-1, 260-plus).

As an added touch, each player’s custom jersey sported an intimidating moniker: Bob’s read “THE ENFORCER” to Pluff’s “THE ASSASSIN.”

Only Eli’s, which read “THE MICROWAVE” and not the seemingly more descriptive “WOOD-BURNING STOVE,” needed elaboration.

“Cuz he comes in and heats it up off the bench,” Bob explained.

Bailing out

When nearly 25 percent of the volunteer court monitors failed to show up for work Saturday morning, Jeanine McClain was the one reaching for the aspirin.

As the person in charge of coordinating Hoopfest’s 360-400 court monitors, it was McClain’s job to find replacements - and fast.

“We planned to have enough help so that each marshal gets two relief people so everybody gets a break,’ McClain said. “It’s just hard because (now) nobody gets relief.”

About 50 volunteers failed to pick up their paperwork and another 40 bailed out later in the morning - more no-shows than usual, McClain said.

Crashing the boards

Most Hoopfest teams have matching shirts, at least. Some have regular uniforms. And then there’s the Spokane Chiefs.

Not the hockey team, but the guys from the Western Hockey League club’s office who got the hockey club to sponsor their entry in the men’s 25-29 division.

They showed up for their 8 a.m. game in nearly full regalia - hockey helmets, gloves and pants.

“We didn’t bring the sticks,” said Todd Doolittle, who’s leaving the Brett Sports organization to work for KHQ-TV. “We did drop the gloves to start the game. That got us a ‘W,’ but it’s so dang hot, we didn’t want to wear them all day.”

Indeed, the pants came off - there were shorts underneath - with the Chiefs up 5-3 in their opener “because we were just dead carrying so much weight around.”

As for shirts, the Chiefs team settled on the ones the hockey club works out in, each reading, “Whatever It Takes” on the front and “Crash the Net” on the back.

“That was the closest thing we could find that had something similar between basketball and hockey,” said Doolittle - who, by the way, was splitting time between the Chiefs team and an open division team and wound up playing seven games on Saturday.

Tall order

Coming in, KHQ-TV’s team of Three Lil Uns and a Big Un was a prohibitive favorite to capture Hoopfest’s Media Division.

The reason was the Big Un.

Bryan Hagen, a 6-foot-10 production assistant, figured to be unstoppable on the inside.

“We were just going to have him stand under the basket and lob it into him,” explained Q-6 reporter Gary Darigol, one of the Three Lil Uns. “I told our guys if anybody took an outside shot, I was going to kick them in the knee.”

Unfortunately for Darigol and his teammates, Hagen was hired away last week by a station in Seattle and failed to make good on his promise to return for Hoopfest.

The Three Lil Uns subsequently lost their first two games.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Color Photos