KJ Adams, a future KU power forward, wins national slam dunk contest shown on CBS
Future Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball power forward KJ Adams won the 10th annual American Family Insurance Slam Dunk Championship, shown in conjunction with the Final Four Sunday on CBS.
Adams, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior from Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, placed first of eight competitors. The other entrants in the event held in Indianapolis: Rafael Castro (Providence), JD Davison (Alabama), Jordan Hawkins (UConn), Josh Minott (Memphis), Manny Obaseki (Texas A&M), Blake Wesley (Notre Dame) and Ridge Harrison, who is not yet committed to a school.
Adams on his final dunk slammed the ball through the goal with his right hand, while grabbing a ball off the back of the rim with his left hand and flushing that basketball, as well.
Adams, who chose KU over Baylor, Texas, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Georgetown, Iona, Iowa, Oklahoma and Central Florida in recruiting, recently was named Class 6A all-state by hoopinsider.net.
He scored 20 points with 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots in Westlake’s 66-53 loss to Duncanville in the Texas Class 6A state title game in San Antonio. Adams, ranked No. 73 in the recruiting Class of 2021 by Rivals.com and 45 by ESPN.com, scored 21 points in Westlake’s 57-44 semifinal victory over Atascocita.
Westlake finished with a 30-2 record, losing twice to (29-1) Duncanville, which won state for the second straight season.
Adams signed a national letter-of-intent with KU on Nov. 12, 2020. He committed to the Jayhawks on July 31, 2020.
Of Adams, 247sports.com’s Brandon Jenkins wrote: “Adams is a very strong, physically cut-up and athletic 4-man that excels in the high post and on the break. He is built like an NFL tight end and moves as if he has had a lot of experience on the gridiron.
“Adams simply plays above the rim with his explosiveness and elevates to score off tip-ins, dump-offs, and putbacks. He has some ball skills but will need to continue to work to improve his jumper and extend his range to take his game to the next level. Adams loves to attack off the dribble or play in the dunker spot where he makes plays with his athleticism. With his ability to guard ball screens, he will be a high major blue-collared athlete and rip through slasher who will bring toughness to Bill Self and Kansas in the fall.”
His high school coach, Robert Lucero, commented about the play of Adams to the Austin American-Statesman after the power forward scored 19 points with nine rebounds and four blocks in a 64-48 regional championship playoff victory over San Antonio Clark.
“He’s like the new age where he’s just a basketball player. You can’t define him by a position,” Lucero said. “He can bring the ball up and set up offense. He can shoot threes. He can post up people. He can defend, block shots, rebound. He’s really unselfish because every time down the floor he could get a shot up, but he gets his team involved.”
Adams told the American-Statesman: “Coach Lucero always tells me offense doesn’t really matter if you can’t play defense. So I try to lock in and play an all-around game. It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but my defense brings me my offense.
“A lot of people don’t know, but I like to pass a lot, more than I like to do anything else,” Adams added. “We have a lot of weapons on offense. And I really like getting the ball to them because I know they’ll do something with it after I pass to them.”
He especially loves to dunk.
“Oh, man, when (Adams) dunks, it gives us all energy,” starting point guard Eain Mowat told the American-Statesman. “The bench gets into it, jumps up and starts cheering. It shows we came to play.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 1:26 PM with the headline "KJ Adams, a future KU power forward, wins national slam dunk contest shown on CBS."
