Man, the NBA dunk contest has really turned into a living cartoon these days. I mean, a phone booth with an NBA logo on it? That was a real spur-of-the-moment thing, wasn’t it? Same with the backboard on a cherry picker thing that allowed Dwight Howard to raise the rim for a dunk.

Shades of one of those Trail Blazer “Slam and Jam” things in the summer at old Civic Stadium, where Clyde Drexler once dunked the ball on a rim higher than what they optimistically called a “12-foot” rim Saturday night in Phoenix.

Drexler used to show up for those All-Star Weekend dunk contests totally unprepared. He was a game dunker. He could improvise and dunk the ball in people’s faces all game long. But at a contest, with no defenders standing in his way, he was always perplexed about what to do. It made for some awkward contest moments.

The guy who was Drexler’s best friend in a Trail Blazer uniform was always the better dunker. In fact, he was the best I’ve seen to this day. No, not Jerome Kersey. Folks, it was Kiki Vandeweghe. And yes, I always have a lot of trouble convicing people of this.

But one time at practice we were talking about dunk contests and Kiki insisted that he’d never been in one that he didn’t win. Come on — a kind of slow, white guy who wasn’t a big jumper? How could this be?

Vandeweghe shrugged his shoulders and went on about his shooting jump shots. He felt no urge to prove his dunking prowess. But a few days later, after constant jabs from me about it, one day after practice, he quietly went over and picked up two basketballs out of a rack.

And I mean picked them up — the way you’d pick up two apples out of the produce section. The guy’s hands were enormous. Huge. And it immediately lit the light bulb in my dim brain. A big part of this whole dunk thing is simply the ability to manipulate the ball in your hand. Kiki could hold a basketball as well as you and me could hold a baseball.

Anyway, one of those guys who never showed much excitement about anything, ambled out on the court, took a few jog steps to the basket and twirled in the air. At the end, he threw down one ball after the other — a perfect, 360-degree, two-ball dunk. I’d never even seen one before. His teammates froze. Everyone wanted to see it again. So he shrugged his shoulders and did it again. With really no effort at all.

It was amazing.

In games, Kiki was also an incredible dunker. For a guy who didn’t jump well, his dunks were NEVER blocked. His hands were so big and so quick that he could quick-dunk — throw it so fast over the rim that nobody could get to it. He wouldn’t ever windmill in a game — too much chance for someone to time it for a block. But I guarantee you, if he’d ever wanted to do that, his windmill — with those big hands and long arms — would have been sensational.

I doubt he’d have ever won an NBA dunk contest because he didn’t have all the showmanship. Brent Barry actually won one, but because of HIS lack of showmanship, barely anybody remembers that Barry took off from further away than Doc or MJ on their foul-line dunks. He’s an afterthought.

If only Brent would have had the courage to do what he told me later he thought about doing. He said that day he was wearing a T-shirt under his jersey that said, “White men CAN jump” – and he planned to reveal it at the post-contest press conference. But he didn’t have the nerve.

Too bad. Maybe more people would have remembered his historic dunk.

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Rudy Fernandez paid a very thoughtful tribune to Spain’s first NBA player last night in the slam-dunk contest, by wearing a replica of Fernando Martin’s Trail Blazer uniform for his first dunk.

It’s a shame the people doing the broadcast on TNT were not educated, prior to the event, about Martin. And then they might have at least pronounced his name correctly (it’s mar-TEEN) and not looked like ignorant fools with their jokes at the sight of the uniform.

Martin was a god in Spain and when he came to the Blazers in 1986-87, much was expected — by his fans in Spain. But they had no idea of the climate in the NBA at the time. European players in those days had a real problem convincing NBA coaches they were good enough, tough enough, to actually play.

Fernando led a very solitary existence that season with the Blazers. He was shy around teammates and kept to himself. And he seldom got off the bench. We’re talking about a guy who played in only 24 games, even though he was here all season, made just 9 of 31 shots and scored but 22 points. He was so nervous when he finally made it to the court during games he locked himself up.

He returned to Spain the following season to resume his career but was killed in an auto accident on Dec. 3, 1989. I believe Rudy’s tribute was probably a very big thing in Spain and I was pleased by his respect for the past and a personal chance to remember a very nice guy.

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