Last night, Patrick Ewing, Jr. performed in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 20th Annual State Farm Slam Dunk Contest, and he did just about as good as anyone could ask. He didn’t rival Vince Carter, or Michael and Dominique, but he had a perfect outing.

In his first dunk, Patrick didn’t come out prepared, as he tried to recruit Joyce Ekworomadu from the women’s three-point contest to throw him an alley-oop. Say what you will about women’s vs. men’s basketball in terms of skills or shooting ability, but there is one thing that is noticeably absent in the women’s game, and that is the alley-oop. It was quite possibly the first time that Ekworomadu had thrown for an alley-oop, and as a result, it wasn’t the best dunk contest material. Pat received low marks, and ended the first round in next to last place.

In the second round, everyone had already written him out, and Georgetown fans were just hoping he wouldn’t embarrass himself. He started pumping his arms at the crowd, and then he set towards the basket. I’ll let you see what happened next:

A behind-the-back slam dunk that had the judges on their feet, the commentators calling him a magician, and the rest of the contestants dancing behind him as he pranced around the court, is what I would call a Patrick Ewing, Jr. moment.

It was one of only two perfect scores on the night, and Patrick’s truly was the more special because his dunk was something that hadn’t been seen before. Will Bullard earned a 50 on his first dunk by jumping over a 6′9” friend of his, but we’ve seen players jump over people before, and even if we hadn’t, he went on to repeat it in the next two rounds as well (adding people to the end of the line, of course).

But Ewing’s performance wasn’t great because he had a nice dunk. It was great because he didn’t let anyone down. His first dunk was poor, to be sure, but for one, it wasn’t entirely his fault, and secondly, he went on to do better with his second. Much better. And despite his perfect 50, Patrick didn’t earn enough points to move to the second round, so he didn’t have to try to one up himself in the later rounds.

After Patrick’s dunk, the next three contestants went on to miss every attempt, and they ended their respective contests with a shot clock violation. The two who went on to the finals, Bullard, and Sonny Weems, each had fine outings, and Weems probably deserved the title after his four solid dunks, including one from the foul line. But the best moment was definitely Ewing’s creative bit of showmanship that had judge Emmitt Smith looking around incredulously. Since Patrick didn’t move on to the second round, the last the audience saw of #33 was him dancing around with his newly acquired entourage as ESPN kept showing replay after replay. And next to a National Championship, that has to be the perfect way for Patrick Ewing, Jr. to end his career in a Georgetown uniform.