BOUNTYGATE: Team USA Had A $1 Million Bet To Dunk On Yao Ming

[Yahoo] – “First of all, people didn’t know, we had a bounty out on Yao Ming. The whole USA team had a bet. We had a million dollar bet on who was going to be the first person to dunk on Yao Ming. None of us did. We all tried to dunk on Yao, but he would block it or we would miss. So, the first thing I thought of when I saw Vince dunk over Frederic was oh sh-t, you won the million dollars. But then I realized it obviously wasn’t Yao. I pushed Vince, and if you look at the clip, he almost punches me in the face by accident. But my first thought was, oh sh-t, you won, you got the million.”

Now this is what I’m talking about. You give me a group like 2000 Team USA and a million dollar bet and the entire world would tune in even more. We need more of this at the 2020 Olympics. Put a million dollar bounty on someone.

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Think about it. This was the same group that had Vince Carter do this:

Weis probably had a $1 bounty if we’re being honest. But, imagine if he did this on Yao. It would be the greatest dunk in the history of dunks and I don’t think it would ever get topped.

The group of Team USA in 2000 was: Garnett/Vince/Ray Allen/Steve Smith/Shareef Abdur-Rahim/Vin Baker/Tim Hardaway/Allan Houston/Jason Kidd/Zo/Gary Payton/Antonio McDyess.

How many of those would have been able to dunk on Yao? I’m thinking 8. That’s a pretty solid bet.

That said, the dunk with Carter over Weis just got better with the fact that Garnett celebrated thinking he won a million bucks. That’s just so awesome. It’s good to be a Team USA basketball fan.