Cole Anthony spins a tall tale.
The Orlando Magic guard insists 22-year-old wing Caleb Houstan once posterized another teammate, defensive-minded big man Wendell Carter Jr., in a scrimmage years ago. According to Anthony’s retelling, Houstan flew down the court in transition, rose on Carter and slammed the basketball over Carter’s head and through the hoop.
Anthony treasures the alleged highlight, though he adds, “(Houstan) probably don’t remember that.” And for good reason. Anthony’s story, while riveting, may not be true — or, at least, he may have dressed the details up a smidgen.
Houstan, who was standing to Anthony’s right as the loquacious guard outlined a detonation on par with the one Albert Einstein warned against, spouted back at him in the moment.
“I don’t remember that,” Houstan said. He stirred a pinch of sass into his tone.
There’s a reason Anthony (whose primary purpose in life seems to be to make his close friends, a group that includes both Houstan and Carter, uncomfortable for his own entertainment) was insistent that a dunk whose existence remains in question actually occurred: Houstan, a 6-foot-8 hustler, is the tallest qualifying player (500 minutes played) currently in the NBA who has never dunked in-game.
He can do so in other settings. He dunked in college. He’s done it in open gyms. And according to Anthony, he once brutalized Carter in a scrimmage, even if Anthony, known best for his practical joking, seems to be the only one who recalls the moment.
“Caleb ain’t never dunked on me,” Carter said. “That’s cap.”
The center, who has played with Anthony for five seasons and Houstan for three, couldn’t help but laugh. This, he declared, was just his bud being a “chatterer,” as always.
“He’s just always chatting. … He’s from New York,” Carter said, chuckling at Anthony’s attempts to spread what he called lies. “You know how that s— goes.”
Anthony couldn’t provide proof of this so-called dunk, the one he seems to be making up in the hopes of embarrassing two of his longtime friends: Houstan, because he is no attention-seeker, and Carter, because he wants the world to believe one of the team’s defensive backbones once failed to such a degree that he somehow transformed a man who doesn’t dunk into Vince Carter.
But make no mistake about it: Regardless of whether this dunk happened, Houstan can dunk. He pulled more than one off while at University of Michigan, in high school and in the G League. And he has done it in practice, even if there weren’t defenders around him, including one windmill Anthony captured on his iPhone, a video he shared with The Athletic and demanded be put on the record for this story (possibly so he could further his claims that Houstan dunked on Carter).
So if Houstan can dunk, which should come as no surprise given his height and that he’s hardly a sloth on the court, why has he gone 2,073 professional minutes, long enough to watch Ken Burns’ nine-episode “The Civil War” documentary three times on a loop, without ever doing it?
“I never really had the opportunity to dunk,” Houstan said. “Most of my shots are 3s. But when the time comes around, then yeah.”
If he ever throws one down, the New York Knicks’ Matt Ryan, a 6-foot-7 sharpshooter, would take over the crown as the NBA’s tallest active player without an in-game slam.
“For a shooter, you need a good amount of minutes over a lot of games for a dunk opportunity,” said Ryan, who will dunk in warm-ups.
In that sense, Ryan and Houstan both fit the bill. During his three-year career, 85 percent of Houstan’s shots have been from behind the 3-point arc. It doesn’t leave many opportunities for a tomahawk — or even a lazy finger roll.
He doesn’t leak out much. He’s excessively fundamental, boxing opponents out instead of streaking the other way for fast breaks.
During his rookie season, Houstan actually botched a rare opportunity. After an Orlando steal, he received the basketball racing the other way without anyone around him … or so he thought. He rose for a two-handed slam, but an aged Robin Lopez scratched a fingernail on the basketball, which jolted loose.
No basket. And no dunk.
Houstan does not seem to care about that moment today, but maybe he will years from now. After all, he might be the NBA’s tallest active player without a slam but, unless he becomes a medical marvel, growing two or three inches while already in his 20s, he will never become the league’s true dunkless wonder.
That title belongs to the 6-foot-10 Steve Novak, a 3-point marksman who played from 2006 to 2017, ran for 5,657 NBA minutes (more than eight Ken Burns “Civil War” viewings) and never dunked.
Novak would dunk during practice or warm-ups throughout his career. He didn’t realize he was the king of ground level until he saw a social-media post about it after he finished playing.
Now? “I own it, 100 percent,” Novak said, though he does hold onto one regret.
His missed opportunity occurred more than 10 years ago, during his time with the Knicks. New York had swiped away a steal, and the ball wound up in the hands of a streaking Novak, who saw only the basket in front of him. But as Novak approached the hoop, he heard the footsteps of Milwaukee Bucks shot-swatter Larry Sanders creeping behind him, which deterred him from what he didn’t realize at the time would have been a career-changing bucket. Instead of a dunk, he laid in the basketball off the glass.
Later, he realized Sanders wasn’t as close as he thought.
“I blame Larry,” Novak said. “If it wasn’t for Larry, I would certainly not be a part of this conversation.”
But now, he is — and he always will be.
Houstan, however, is only 22. He still has time to touch the rim.
If he’s ever in a similar situation, all alone with a chance to slam, he says he would “probably” dunk it, though he joked he would consider laying it in just so he could claim to be too good for dunking.
Ah, the dunk, impressive only to the lowly serfs of basketball’s airspace.
“That would be funny,” he said.
If it ever happens, Houstan won’t celebrate. “I feel like you gotta get multiple of those,” he added.
But he can’t speak for his teammates.
Carter and Anthony are hardly the only two members of the Magic aware of this niche bit of trivia. The team knows Houstan has never dunked. And if he ever does, don’t look at the man finishing his first career slam. Instead, turn to Orlando’s bench.
As Carter put it, “We gotta turn up.”
Anthony says it’s his goal to get Houstan an in-game dunk. If the two of them are on a fast break together, count on the guard to give it up to his teammate. And if Houstan actually finishes it?
“I might do a backflip,” Anthony said. “Yo, you ever see who ‘Speed’ is? The (YouTube) streamer? There’s a clip of him recently; he was on a stream. He just out of nowhere randomly does a backflip onto his setup. That’s gonna be me when Caleb gets a dunk in a game.”
Of course, Carter isn’t buying Anthony’s acrobatics either.
“Another example of him chattering,” Carter said. “He’s just always chattering.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images)
