Mac McClung of the G League Osceola Magic has won his second straight NBA slam dunk contest. The six-foot-two guard performed, among other feats, a slam after jumping over Shaquille O’Neal. While ranking the greatest dunkers of all time, fans might consider game dunks – not showboat jams by someone in the clear but plays where the dunk is the best or only way to score.
For example, check out Blake Griffin dunking over Kendrick Perkins back in 2012, a monster throw-down. Compare that with Vince Carter’s dunk over the seven-foot-two Frederic Weis in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Back in 1994, the six-foot-one Kevin Johnson threw down this jam over the seven-foot Akeem Olajuwan. In the previous year’s playoffs, John Starks pulled off this left-hand dunk over Horace Grant.
Dial it back to 1989 and watch Tom Chambers take a pass in full stride and sky over Mark Jackson for a rim-rocker. The year before, Dominique Wilkins put back his own missed shot in fine style. Hear the great Chick Hearn call Julius Erving’s rock-the-baby dunk in 1983. With Michael Jordan, leading candidate for greatest player of all time, it would be easier to list the players he did not dunk on. Consider a few samples from 1992 alone.
By some accounts, the first person to dunk in an organized game was Joe Fortenberry, captain of the 1936 U.S. Olympic team. Players have come a long way since then.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.