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Richard Jefferson's ridiculous dunk leaves foul taste

DALLAS -- Richard Jefferson caught the behind-the-back pass from Devin Harris and punched the rewind button.

In the blink of an eye, Jefferson went back about a decade.

Yes, that really was 34-year-old Richard Jefferson rising from the dotted line and throwing down a vicious tomahawk slam over 21-year old Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The dunk was so stunning and so sweet that players on the Charlotte Hornets’ bench were falling over each other in shocked awe.

“It was sick!” said Dirk Nowitzki, whose All-Star alley-oop is no longer the most surprising dunk of the Dallas Mavericks season, although players swear the 14-year veteran Jefferson has dunked like that in practice.

So what if the refs waved it off, ruling that Jefferson used his off arm to push off en route to the rim?

“In 14 years, even when I could jump like that every day, I don’t think I’ve ever had a ref call an offensive foul like that,” said Jefferson, who had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists as the fill-in starter at small forward in Sunday’s 92-81 win. “But it’s OK, man.”

It’s all good actually. Jefferson’s dunk immediately went viral -- and the six seconds of video allowed on Vines don’t allow enough time for minor details like offensive fouls being called.

“Nobody knows? That’s cool,” Jefferson said. “See, back in the day, we didn’t have Vines, so when they called that off, you didn’t see it on 'SportsCenter.' Hopefully, the Vine will help.

“It was just funny watching my teammates’ reaction. I think Dirk almost got a technical because he was screaming at the ref about it.”

Jefferson’s teammates, of course, had plenty of company in the packed American Airlines Center.

“I was disappointed just like the other 19,102 people,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “If you go by the letter of the law, it’s probably the right call, but it sure did piss a lot of people off.”