Murray Hendry: Falkirk Fury Gladiators star, son of Celtic hero Rab Douglas, soars to dunk contest glory

Flying Scot Hendry, who was representing professional club side Gladiators, played for Fury’s senior men during the 2022-23 season, being a key player for John Bunyan’s team as they narrowly missed out on their own domestic play-off glory in the Scottish league system.

In front of 16,000 fans, he soared to success with a series of spectacular dunks that Fury fans had seen at Grangemouth Sports Complex throughout the campaign. Murray capped off the dunk contest with a perfect series of 10s from the judges in his final dunk that gave him the prestigious title.

Having been included in Scotland's Commonwealth Games squad in 2022, Murray has a reputation for his spectacular and ferocious dunks and he saw off strong British Basketball League competition, defeating Jalon Pipkins of the Sheffield Sharks, Leicester Riders’ Lane Campbell and Newcastle Eagles’ Justin 'Air' Gordon.

In the first round, Hendry went through the legs, chucking the ball off the backboard before hammering it home with two hands, which was followed by a baseline reverse and a near tomahawk one-hand slam to get to the final round.

Speaking to the Falkirk Herald, Falkirk Fury head coach John Bunyan revealed his pride at seeing Murray finally get a dunk contest title over the line after a series of previous near misses.

"Murray has been getting our fans out of their seats all season with his spectacular high-flying slam dunks and has certainly helped us get packed out games on Friday nights,” said Bunyan. “There is a lot more of course to Murray's game, he hit 33 points in our second leg play-off final game against Boroughmuir Blaze not so long ago.

"He is a very strong player in terms of moves next to the basket. Murray really did bring an added presence to our defence throughout the campaign and is a very motivational player for his team-mates to feed off. It says a lot that many people felt he should have been dunk champion at previous BBL events before this one, so it's great he has finally got his hands on the trophy.”