“Slam dunk” has entered popular American speech from the religion of basketball to signify a “sure thing”. It refers to a certain crowd-pleasing shot in which a player places the ball in the net from above and does so with at least one hand touching the rim. The net, it should be remembered, is 10 feet above the ground. The exceptional brilliance of some of these shots has led to slam dunking contests outside regular games and annual reviews of the best slam dunks, not to say an infinite number of YouTube replays of the most awesome. From time immemorial athletes have been tinged with divinity. The Olympic Games were originally associated with religious festivals and so were seen as a form of worship. There must have been celebrities, but without corporate sponsors