Legendary avenue baller Taurian Fontenette lifeless at 43
Legendary avenue baller Taurian “TJ” Fontenette died Monday night time at 43 years previous.
Fontenette, identified for his high-flying skills on the AND1 streetball circuit, is credited with pulling off the primary 720-degree dunk, giving him the nickname “Mr. 720,” together with “Air Up There.”
No reason for dying is understood.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound avenue baller attended UTEP on a full scholarship to play school basketball however left after a season and bounced between junior schools afterward.
He was a extremely recruited highschool basketball participant out of Galveston, Texas, the place he averaged 20 factors and 12 rebounds per recreation.
“My coronary heart is damaged in one million items,” Fontenette’s sister Tracie Sonnier posted on social media Tuesday. “I truthfully don’t even have the phrases to precise the great ache of dropping my child brother. This can be a loss that I don’t suppose our household will ever totally perceive or be capable of put into phrases. Thanks all for giving us grace, and permitting our household to try to course of this and acquire some understanding about what has occurred.”
Fontenette is greatest identified for his dunking potential and his Cinderella story, as he labored at a chemical plant after his time enjoying school hoops in his hometown.
He then nailed a tryout when the AND1 Mixtape Tour got here to Houston in 2005, the place he went viral for his unbelievable dunks.
“I’m not likely a streetball participant,” Fontenette advised the Houston Chronicle in 2006. “I’m extra of a gymnasium rat-type of participant, nevertheless it’s been cool.”
He later tried to depart the streetball model of basketball and transfer into extra organized competitors.
He joined the ABA in 2009 with the Dallas Generals, however the crew folded earlier than that season began.
“You had been a real present, a one-of-a-kind soul, and somebody whose presence may mild up any room,” Sonnier concluded on Fb.
“A basketball genius with a love and expertise for the sport that was unmatched, the life of each celebration, and an individual with a coronary heart so massive that you simply by no means hesitated to go the additional mile for anybody who wanted you. You had a manner of creating individuals chortle, making reminiscences, and leaving an impression that would by no means be forgotten. Your power, your laughter, your generosity, and that lovely spirit of yours will perpetually stay within the hearts of everybody blessed sufficient to know you. I want I had extra time. Extra conversations, extra laughs, extra reminiscences, and only one extra alternative to inform you how a lot you imply to me.”
