'Air Up There' death: Hitchcock, AND1's Taurian Fontenette dead at 43

Houston Chronicle · Matt Young · 2026-11-04 15:29 UTC

T.J. Fontenette was a star basketball player at Hitchcock High School near Houston before earning fame as the 'Air Up There' dunker on the AND1 Mixtape Tour.

Former Hitchock High School basketball star Taurian Fontenette, who went on to earn national acclaim on the AND1 Mixtape Tour as the high-flying dunker known as “Air Up There,” died Monday night at 43 years old.

“My heart is broken in a million pieces,” Fontenette’s sister Tracie Sonnier posted on social media Tuesday. “I honestly don’t even have the words to express the tremendous pain of losing my baby brother. This is a loss that I don’t think our family will ever fully understand or be able to put into words. Thank you all for giving us grace, and allowing our family to try and process this and gain some understanding about what has happened.”

Fontenette, who went by T.J. in high school, was one of the best basketball players to come out of Galveston County, making all-state three years in a row (1998-2000) and earning a scholarship to UTEP.

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