It was around sixth grade that Sedona Prince developed bulletproof skin. She had to. Already towering over her teammates at over 6 feet, Prince was a natural target for bullies. She still is, now as a 6-foot-7 senior at Texas' Liberty Hill High School, despite averaging more than 20 points a game.
"You're awful." "You're only getting awards because you're tall." "You suck." "You should get out of basketball."
On the outside, the words bounce off her.
On the inside, they sting all around.
"She's a very, very tall girl in a small town, with people trying to tear her down," says her mother, Tambra, whose family lives in Liberty Hill, a town of about 1,600 and an hour north of Austin. "It's been very painful."
But Prince, a University of Texas commit who will compete in the upcoming McDonald's All American Game on Wednesday (5 p.m. ET, ESPN2), has found a way to rise above. She does just that when she clutches that orange leather ball, takes two steps and flies through the air. And when she's eye-to-eye with the rim, stuffing the ball down for a dunk, it's as if nothing and no one below her can pull her down.
"I feel like I can do anything," Prince says. "People say, 'There's not enough athleticism. Girls don't dunk. It's not entertaining. They're just fundamentals.' And I feel like our generation, with multiple girls who can dunk and get up there, is changing the game. It's definitely empowering for us."
'Yeah, but can you dunk?'
Watch a women's basketball game and the question is bound to come up sooner or later. And then later again. It has for years, decades, since Georgeann Wells proved it was possible when she became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA game, on Dec. 21, 1984. In no other sport does a single skill cause such a gender divide.
The 2018 McDonald's girls' game, which will be held Wednesday at Philips Arena in Atlanta, will feature several girls like Prince who can dunk: Queen Egbo, NaLyssa Smith and Charli Collier, to name a few.
Connecticut recruit Olivia Nelson-Ododa is slated to compete in Monday's Jam Fest dunk contest (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2), which has been won by a girl just one time, back in 2004 when Candace Parker went up and shielded her eyes with her arm for the one-handed stuff, beating out five male competitors, including J.R. Smith.
The 2018 McDonald's All Americans have grown up in an era where dunking is becoming more common in the women's game. Breanna Stewart of the Seattle Storm participated in the 2012 McDonald's contest. So did South Carolina's A'ja Wilson (2014), Cal's Kristine Anigwe (2015) and Stanford's Maya Dodson (2017). Brittney Griner dunks in WNBA games as a matter of course. Fran Belibi, now a high school junior, put down dunk after dunk after dunk last season as a sophomore at Regis Jesuit in Colorado.
"The athleticism of the female athletes that we're seeing, who are playing basketball now, has really risen to a new level," says Dawn Seiler, who will coach Prince on this year's McDonald's East squad. She currently coaches at Aberdeen Central High (South Dakota).
"We're seeing some of the best female athletes are now playing basketball, so I think that's something that's increased the number of kids who can dunk," Seiler says. "Also you have the training, our female athletes are getting the best training and coaches, and we're putting them in situations where they get the best strength training, so I think that's part of the evolution of it all."
Athletes like 6-2 Aquira DeCosta and 6-5 Shakira Austin can flat-out leap. Watching them is not only fun, but Seiler suggests dunking can also enhance the game.
"It's exciting for the fans, exciting for your team," Seiler says. "We're always as coaches striving to get players to step outside what the norm is and to always expand their game, so if you have a situation where you can [dunk], I think it's great for the game of basketball."
And that leaves the ball in the court of the game's next generation. Will the dunk begin to dominate the girls' and women's game? Will it become the foregone conclusion on fast breaks? A normal part of a set offense? Should it?
Collier, a 6-5 forward who, like Prince, is headed to the University of Texas, thinks that greatness is on the horizon. "It's just a matter of time until we start inputting that into the actual games," Collier says. "Just look at Brittney Griner."
Some aren't as focused on dunking. At least for themselves.
"I think dunking is cool, but I just think for me, I would never do it," says Amira Collins, a Tennessee commit at Paul VI (Fairfax, Virginia). "I know a lot of girls would. I love watching it, but I'm not the type of person who would do it. I'm like, 'Let's get a layup, let's just score.' Plus, I usually never have the opportunity to have a fast break and come down the court and just dunk it."
Still, it seems nowadays there is an appetite for the dunk. Some girls feel there is almost an expectation for taller, more athletic girls to dunk. Smith, a 6-2 forward and Baylor recruit, heard the question from guys all her life: "Can you dunk? Can you dunk?" as if that was the only measure of her talent.
She did want to dunk, though, all her life, not to provide the guys with an answer, but for her own personal satisfaction. So she worked at it. She labored on her vertical, doing calves and squats work, plus jumping rope 100 times every night, to increase her bounce.
She was once training with her father when he instructed her to touch the backboard 10 times. She was tired, but when her dad encouraged her to keep jumping higher, just try a dunk one time, she couldn't resist. "It finally went in," Smith says. "It was just crazy. ... I feel very powerful because a lot of people can't do it. To know you can dunk or at least touch rim or attempt to dunk, it just pushes your confidence up a lot."
Part of the confidence comes from doing the unexpected, proving people wrong.
"I think it's awesome," says Zarielle Green, a 6-foot Tennessee commit. "It's a huge statement for the girls' side because a lot of people don't think girls are that athletic and aren't able to do things that men can do, but actually we really can."
Prince, however, acknowledges that there are differences. Particularly when you lump them all together in a contest like McDonald's does. "The guys are going to be going from the free throw line, windmilling. Obviously us girls are not able to do that yet," Prince says.
McKenzie Forbes, a 6-foot Cal commit, shares similar views. "Some people think we should be able to do just as good as [boys], but if we look at the reality of it, they're probably a little more athletic than us right now," Forbes says.
Forbes acknowledges that even when girls do complete dunks, they are still mocked: Oh, she barely tipped it in. Oh, that's not a real dunk.
"When you see the NBA players watching it, like Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant, people who really know the game, [they] realize that we have incredible talent," Forbes says. "When you see the best of the best do it, their skill set and everything is so beautiful without it being compared to the men's game and I think that's how it should be looked at. Instead of trying to always compare greatness, just appreciate greatness in itself."
Egbo, a 6-3 Baylor commit, thinks just simply attempting to dunk makes a statement and is a worthwhile pursuit. That's why she wouldn't mind competing against guys, rather than having a separate girls' competition, in the upcoming Jam Fest dunk contest and others.
"I'd like the contest to be integrated because it just makes me feel like I could do whatever a guy could do. Like, we're not different," Egbo says. "Let's say I wasn't to accomplish it [throw down a dunk], it's not embarrassing because it's the simple fact you got up there. I don't think there's anything embarrassing about it."
Prince, too, feels powerful when she gets a dunk down. She thinks about it often. Sometimes in practice her mind will wander: "What if I could dunk like this? What if I could dunk like that?" she thinks to herself. She says she dreams about dunking, too, and sometimes stays up late thinking about it before those dreams come.
Focused on climbing higher, she doesn't let bullies get to her in the same way they used to.
"Dunking," her mother says, "is about getting up despite all odds. Sedona knows you can rise up above anything no matter what anyone says."
