In Honor Of Jaylen Brown Ending Joel Embiid's Career, I Present The Greatest Dunks In NBA History
I’ll always remember where I was when I watched Jaylen Brown defy gravity and probably end Joel Embiid’s career with a ferocious slam. I was in my room, watching the game on my 32.5 inch HD television (not to brag). When it happened, I jumped out of my bed so fast I actually ruptured my spleen and had to go to the emergency room. I’m gonna be okay, which is a lot more than Joel Embiid can say after last night.
Once I got home from the ER, I had a hard time falling asleep because my mind was racing with thoughts and visions as I tried to process what I had seen a few hours earlier. What a finish. What leaping ability. What strength! It got me thinking about all the other great dunks of all-time, and how it’s so hard to find any compilations of all these plays in the same place.
Well, folks, we no longer have that problem, because I’ve taken the time to put them all together in GIF form as the meat and potatoes of my official “greatest dunks in NBA history” blog. That’s what this is. You’re reading it.
Without further ado, I present said blog and list to you. It took me a while to cut this down to 10, so if you have any others worth of the list that I missed feel free to argue about it in the comments or maybe post a link.
#10 – Jaylen Brown’s Game 1 Murder
There’s not much more that needs to be said about this one. Jaylen Brown got UP. Joel Embiid thought he could block him, but the ball went in so obviously that didn’t work out. Somebody get that goof some mother fucking MILK, am I right?
#9 – Javale McGee Posterizes Danny Green
Javale McGee, undoubtedly one of the best dunkers of all time. His length is legendary, and his ability to rise above the defenders will go down in NBA history when his time in the league is done. We’ll have more from him in a bit.
#8 – Ray Allen Demoralizes Pau Gasol In The NBA Finals
Now I know what you’re thinking. Ray Allen is one of the greatest shooters in NBA history and no one really even considers him as a dunker. I’m here to show you how unfair that narrative is. He attacks the rim with the shameless aggression of an NBA star trying to achieve orgasm with disgusting text messages that he accidentally tweets instead of texts. The haters and losers might argue that Pau Gasol’s defense forces him to change his dunk, but to that I say the ball went in the hoop, so it still counts. What a dunk!
#7 – Tim Duncan Puts Deandre Jordan On A Poster
This is the first Tim “Dunkin” Duncan highlight on this list, but it won’t be the last. All credit to Deandre Jordan for bouncing back from this embarrassment and managing to salvage his career after the “big fundamental” put on a slam dunk clinic in the Western Conference Playoffs. If you’re wondering how he managed to dunk that far away from the rim without any momentum or a running start, I honestly don’t have an answer for you. He was just that talented.
#6 – Dwayne Wade And-1 Dunk Vs. Detroit
It was only a matter of time until D-Wade made this list. He’s one of the greatest dunkers and finishers of all-time, as you can see by this highlight of him finishing a dunk through contact. In an ideal world, his hands touches the rim, but any great dunker will tell you it still counts as a dunk as long as you jumped really high and the ball goes in. Check mate, bitch.
#5 – Blake Griffin Rises And Surprises Vs. Golden State
Another guy with legendary hops, Blake Griffin made a name for himself early in his career with dunks like this one.
Let’s check it out from another angle!
All I can say is wow! Hard to recover from that if you’re David Lee.
#4 – Tim Duncan From (The Side Of) The Free Throw Line!!!
One of the all-time greats makes his return to the ultimate dunking compilation with this legendary slam against the Boston Celtics. Everyone likes to talk about Jordan taking off from the free throw line in the Dunk Contest, but everyone forgets that Tim Duncan made a career out of doing the same thing, only it was the side of the free throw line.
This one came against Kevin Garnett, a former-star and elite defender known for his ferocious attitude on and off the court. That didn’t scare Duncan away from jamming this one in (off the glass) here though.
#3 – Javale McGee Is Back, This Time Putting His Dick In Kevin Durant’s Face In A Huge Moment
I mean the GIF speaks for itself. Kevin Durant is supposed to be one of the greatest talents this league has ever seen, yet here we can clearly see Javale McGee dunking over him with ease. Sometimes you gotta just pick your battles, and Kevin Durant clearly lost this one. What a slam!
#2 – Tim Duncan Dunks From The 3-Point Line As Time Expires To Send It To Triple-OT
This is one of my favorites because anyone can dunk in a defender’s face when the game means nothing. To see someone elevate from behind the 3-point line and finish a dunk as time expires, tying the game and sending it to triple-OT is just some next level shit. This is why Tim Duncan is one of the greats; there was never a moment too big for him to put someone’s ass on a poster. Another Gasol brother goes down in the process. That’s what you get for stepping to one of the slam dunk kings, Mark.
#1 – Shannon Brown Killed The Entire Phoenix Suns Roster With This Enormous Jam
I’ll never forget watching this one live. It was so hard to fathom that a man as little as Shannon Brown could rise up like that and slam the basketball into the rim. The whole game stopped. The whole world probably stopped. James Naismith shit himself in his grave. It was that big time. Notice how Amare Stoudemire looks over and ultimately decides he doesn’t even want to try stopping Brown as he gets ready to finish at the rim. I guess that’s the type of reputation Shannon Brown carried with him throughout his career, because Amare Stoudemire was a great defender in his day.
If there’s ever a “Greatest Dunks in NBA History” exhibit at the hall of fame in Springfield, this one deserves to be the first thing everyone sees. It’s just that transcendent.
Honorable Mention: Vince Carter In The Olympics
It took me a long time to decide where this one should end up, if at all, on the list. Ultimately I kept it off because it happened in the olympics and no one really cares. I guess it was pretty impressive though. Maybe next time Vince will watch some Jaylen Brown tape and learn how to save his best plays for games people are actually watching, like the first game of the regular season against a team that just got off a 16-hour flight back from China.