5-5 Maberry leaps from GR to Super Bowl

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - It's a long way from Ottawa Hills High School to taking part in a celebrity basketball game during Super Bowl weekend. But Porter Maberry made the leap.

Literally.

The 5-foot-5 Maberry is now known as the world's shortest professional dunker. He'll play in the 15th annual Gridiron Celebrity Hoops charity game in New Orleans with Terrell Owens, Dez Bryant, Jamie Foxx and Tank, among others.

He's now a YouTube sensation, with his dunking videos viewed more than a million times.

"I'm shocked, man," he told 24 Hour News 8. "I didn't expect this to take off like this at all. It's a blessing, man."

Maberry graduated from Ottawa Hills five years ago, where he was a guard for the Bengals. In social media, he's better known now as WG.

"I call myself 'What's Gravity?' with a question mark, because I ain't got it."

Maybe you've seen that commercial where LeBron James is getting his hair cut and watching a video on his phone. "Oh, I gotta send that out!" James said in the spot.

The video he was watching was a Porter Maberry dunk.

"Yeah, he almost got his hairline messed up when he jumped out of his seat, so it was great, it was great, man."

That spot and his videos earned him the invitation to play in the celebrity game the night before the Super Bowl.

"I don't want to get star struck, but I'm gonna play my game.  I want to win MVP.  Terrell Owens actually just followed me on Twitter and he said I could jump over him and dunk.  So I'm gonna shut it down."

At 5-foot-5, he's scaled heights he didn't think he could.

"Little kids come up to me all the time - that's the guy from the Lebon James commerical.  It's surreal to me.  I never expected that at all.  I can't believe how fast it's take off.  It's such a blessing," he said.
 
"People are amazed. They're just looking at it like, 'That's crazy, I can't believe he's dunking like that.'  I'm doing dunks that guys 6-6 and 6-7 can't do, so they're looking at me and I'm an inspiration to them, so it feels good."