Second Coming of The Goat

Galley Friend B.W. sends along this amazing video clip of a young baller named Henry Bekkering. It's pretty amazing and reminds me of the legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault. The Goat was a playground fixture in New York back in the day:

In the 1960s, the New York playground scene was dominated by Earl "The Goat" Manigault. In the ten years he played basketball, from age twelve to twenty-two, Manigault created a powerful legend. Just over six feet tall, he once dunked over Lew Alcindor (the legendary seven-foot center from a New York high-school who led UCLA to three national collegiate championships and, after changing his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had one of the longest, most productive careers in the history of the NBA). Manigault is the only person ever to perform a double-dunk, and his greatest regret was never being able to perfect sitting on the rim after a dunk, something he decided to try because he noticed that during dunks, "my waist would be hovering near the rim."

Unfortunately, The Goat dropped out of college, got hooked on heroin, and after age 22 never played seriously again. We'll never know how great he could have been.

In 1998 The Goat died at the age of 53. I hope that he's looking down on young Henry Bekkering and smiling.