T5P1 #3 - The Best Dunkers of All-Time
Before we go any further, here are the criteria:
 |
1. One dunk does not get you on the list. This means you, Tom Chambers, John Starks, and Kevin Johnson (a T5P1 Best Dunks will eventually get done).
2. Bonus points for being groundbreaking in a meaningful way (i.e. George Mikan, Bob Kurland, and Bill Russell will NOT be on the list).
3. Bonus points for showmanship and personality.
4. Bonus points for leaping ability, mobility, and ferocity.
5. Negative points for lack of career significance - also known as “the Terence Stansbury Rule” or the “Kenny ‘Sky’ Walker Corollary”.
6. Bottom line - the dunkers that most completely answered the question of “who did I anticipate the most, and who made me rewind the most to watch them again?” make the list. That… and the “Holy Crap!” factor.
And since the topic is so important, I’m ranking them in reverse order.
WARNING - the music on many of the videos has F (and N, for that matter) bombs in there.
***************************************
THE RFS ALL-TIME BEST DUNKERS
***************************************
HONORABLE MENTION / ALSO CONSIDERED:
 |
Clyde “the Glide” Drexler - one of the three smoothest dunkers ever, and the Captain of Phi Slamma Jamma
Darrell Griffith - aka Dr. Dunkenstein
Jackie Jackson - playground legend that could pick quarters off the top of the backboard
Larry Nance - winner of the first NBA dunk contest, casualty of the “showmanship/personality” rule
Terence Stansbury - his performance in the 1987 contest was ridiculous. I can’t prove it, but I’d be willing to bet that he was the first guy to spend more than a couple of hours choreographing and practicing his own dunks. Plus, he has a top-10 dunk of all-time to his credit… but that’s another topic.
Connie Hawkins - playground legend, ABA legend, and one of the three smoothest dunkers ever
|
|
|
 |
Earl Manigault - “The Goat” was a 6′1″ playground legend that once dunked 36 times in a row behind his head to win a bet. He was also famous for his “double dunk” - he could dunk, pull the ball out, and dunk again before he came down.
Billy Cunningham - “The Kangaroo Kid” could get up.
Spud Webb - The still photos are unreal. Same goes for Nate the Great Robinson.
Gus Johnson - A dunker so powerful that his name was turned into a verb. Alternative usages are:
“Texas A&M gusjohnsoned Grambling last night”,
or
“Did you see Shooter gusjohnson that bottle of whiskey?”
On to the list.
|
|
|
***********************
The Top 5, Plus One:
***********************
My “Plus One” - Michael Jordan - Probably the greatest player ever, MJ’s epic battles with Dominique Wilkins in the early years of the dunk contest established it as a mainstay of All-Star weekend. “Rock the Cradle”, “Kiss the Rim”, and his dunk from the free throw line sold ads on SportsCenter, basketball cards, posters, and God knows what else.
In short, he was exciting, creative, and a showman. I had a hard time putting him this low, but I believe there’s a case to be made for everyone above him. Check out the video:
If anybody figures out what Kelly Tripucka was thinking in the #4 highlight, please email me.
#5 - Shawn Kemp - This is a guy who could have been on the “What Might Have Been Team”. But he had some success. And his performance in the dunk contest was groundbreaking. He’s also the first guy that I remember in the modern era who would dunk hard by flipping it through the net (and not pulling the rim).
I still maintain - as I did at the time - that he should have taken off from at least the free throw line (which I believe he could have) and done his “long jump stride” dunk. Nobody would remember Jordan’s tongue-out, spread-eagle free throw line dunk if he had.
#4 - Vince Carter - To be completely honest, I had him at #2 right up until I had to type this. But I couldn’t do it. Half-man and half-amazing, Vince Carter had creativity, ferocity, and a real career. But he just didn’t break enough ground to be higher than #4 (maybe there isn’t that much ground left to be broke, though).
Personally, I like the 360s.
And since it wouldn’t be a good column if I didn’t post footage of Vince’s dunk over the 7′2″ guy in the Olympics…
I’m glad we didn’t have to see how that turned out if VC misjudged the guy’s height by a couple of inches (or slipped on the floor).
#3 - Julius… the Doctor… ERRRRRRRRRRRVING!!! - If there were more weight on the “groundbreaking” aspect of the ranking, he’d probably be #1 with no question. Every modern-era superstar I’ve ever heard either (1) cites him as a role model, or (2) cites someone who has cited Dr. J as a role model.
Not to mention that he has what is probably the most famous dunk of all-time (his free throw line dunk at the ABA dunk contest in Denver in 1976). Personally… I don’t like that dunk that much (and not just because Brent Barry duplicated it). There are many others of his that I enjoy more. Especially this one:
Did you notice how Michael Cooper decided to try to block it for about 1/8 of a second, then he just covered up to avoid being injured? Greatness.
The first couple of seconds of this next video has a probable NSFW (Not Safe For Work) photo on it, so cover it up if you need to. If you look at the opening picture and are completely comfortable with your coworkers looking at it… please send a job application to rumblin@gmail.com.
Holy crap. I’d forgotten just how fluid he was. If you’ve seen anyone palm the ball off the dribble like that recently, let me know. Because I haven’t.
#2 - Darryl Dawkins - First of all, I should say that I’m tempted to disown/”Fredo” anyone that disagrees with me on this one. But I’ll make my case:
1. He was groundbreaking - He shattered backboards during games, forcing the NBA to switch to the breakaway rim.
2. He was a leaper and was mobile, and had a nice career with the Sixers
3. As far as showmanship and personality… you’ve got to be kidding me. See the following.
4. His nickname was Chocolate Thunder, which in and of itself is a top-20 all-sport nickname (yet another RFS column)
5. He claimed to hail from the planet Lovetron.
6. On his home planet Lovetron, his girlfriend’s name was - and I am not making this up - Juicy Lucy.
7. He named his dunks. And when I say he named his dunks, that’s roughly analogous to saying that Shakespeare wrote some plays, F. Scott Fitzgerald liked to drink and write stories, Lebowski liked to relax, and Ron Jeremy made a career out of fornication. Dawkins’ signature dunk was his backboard-shattering jam over Dave Robinzine. He named it:
——————————————————————————–
“The Chocolate-Thunder Flyin’, Robinzine Cryin’, Teeth Shakin’, Glass Breakin’, Rump-Roastin’, Bun-Toastin’, Wham-Bam-I-Am-Jam”
——————————————————————————–
It’s killing me that I can’t find some video footage of it, but you’ve probably seen it. The name is what’s important. In addition, he had the following names for his other dunks:
The In Your Face Disgrace
 |
The Go-rilla
The Earthquaker Shaker
The Candyslam
The Dunk You Very Much
The “Look Out Below!”
The Yo Mama (my personal favorite)
The Sexophonic Turbo Delight
The Rim Wrecker
The Greyhound Bus (in which he went coast-to-coast)
The Cover Your Head, and
The Left-Handed Spine Chiller Supreme
Enough yammering from me. Watch the video (and ignore the captions - many of the dunk names are wrong):
Bottom line - he was a leaper, charismatic, mobile, a solid player, and he energized a future generation of dunkers. Perhaps I was overly influenced by all the bling he wore during games or cowboy-elevator-shadowboxing, but I doubt it.
#1, The Greatest Dunker of All-Time, Dominique Wilkins - Period, end of story.
I’ve talked basketball with a lot of guys over the years, but Dominique is a consensus pick for the greatest dunker.
Most of what you see on SportsCenter and in the slam dunk contest is a derivative of what he did at Georgia and with the Hawks. Vince Carter is nearly a complete derivative.
He was a perennial All-Star, one of the greatest scorers in the history of the league, an NBA 50th Anniversary top-50 player, he practically invented the windmill and the double-clutch, few if any players could match his leaping ability, he was involved in one of the greatest 4th quarter mano y mano battles in the history of the league with Larry Bird, and his nickname was “The Human Highlight Film”.
The only mark against I can think of is that I had to wear Brooks Highlights basketball shoes one year - those things were HORRRRRIBLE! I hope you got paid, ‘Nique.
Notice all of the double-clutches in traffic and the all-out assaults on the rim. Outside of that, I’m not even going to make any more of a case for him being #1, because doing that would imply that a case actually needs to be made.
So… in summary…
—————————————————————————————-
THE RFS TOP 5 PLUS 1 BEST DUNKERS OF ALL-TIME:
Dominique Wilkins
Darryl Dawkins
Julius Erving
Vince Carter
Shawn Kemp
plus
Michael Jordan
—————————————————————————————-
Comment below or email me at rumblin@gmail.com.
As an added bonus, check out a nice compilation video that has a lot of the players mentioned above:
Popularity: 64% [?]
January 17th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Great clips. Only people I could argue for would be David Thompson ( his career numbers are really good) but you may have a hard time finding video on him and maybe Rex Chapman for the whitees in the crowd. In a few years LeBron may be up there with the ferocity that he throws em down with.
January 18th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I couldn’t agree more with your #1. I wish you had put Vince Carter as #2. But a good list nonetheless.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Tripucka: They’re going to be talking about this block for yea…oh shit. And Jordan’s highlight #1 is just sick. Can you imagine if you saw that live.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
This is RFS his ownself. My reactions:
To “D” - I should have put David Thompson on there as “also considered”; that was an oversight on my part. But I don’t think I could see bumping anyone off the Top 5 Plus 1 to include him. I thought about Rex Chapman, but - as RFS is color-blind - he didn’t stand out, despite paving the way for Kenny Smith to do those weak-ass “bounce between the legs, off the glass, dunk” slams. I think LeBron has a lot of flair, but - unlike Jordan - I’m not sure he’s going to be a better athlete when he’s 27 than when he’s 21.
To Derrich - thanks for the comment. Given that his first name is Vince, I’m surprised you didn’t want me to name him the second coming of Jesus Christ… (note - this is an inside joke related to Vince Young)
To Mush - That’s a hilarious Tripucka quote, and it fits perfectly. I couldn’t have done better myself.