MELBOURNE, Australia A 20-year-old man died in hospital Sunday after slam dunking a basketball into a hoop, causing a section of bricks to collapse on him. The dead man, from Pascoe Vale in Melbourne's northeast, was playing basketball with his brother and his 16-year-old cousin. Police said the other two threw the basketball through the hoop but when the victim took his turn, he slam dunked it.

``He grabbed hold of the basketball hoop, which was attached by a metal plate to the front brick section of a garage, causing the bricks to give way and fall on him,'' police said. Two off-duty ambulance officers who live nearby were called and treated the man until an ambulance arrived. The man, whose name was withheld by police at the request of his family, died shortly afterwards in hospital.

In 1996, 19-year-old Ryan Maloney of Melbourne died in a public court when a basketball ring collapsed on him after a slam dunk. A Coroner investigating his death recommended that slam dunking basketballs into hoops be banned. (AP)