Embrace Debate: Who Had The Better Poster Dunk, Anthony Edwards Detonating On John Collins Or Jalen Johnson Dragging His Nuts On Austin Reaves' Head

If there's one thing the internet loves, it's a good old fashioned sports debate. So coming off of last night, where we were treated to not one, but two separate incredible poster dunks, I can't think of a better time to embrace debate than today. 

We'll keep it simple. Who had the better dunk, Jalen Johnson dragging his nuts on Austin Reaves' head, or Anthony Edwards detonating on John Collins? Let's go to the tape.

Up first, we have Jalen Johnson

Not a bad way to start a game if you ask me, I mean jesus. He nearly leapfrogged over Reaves who was a tad slow in getting in position to take the charge, we had full extension, and let's call it like it is. He dragged his junk on Reaves's head while fully extending and dunking over him. That's how I would describe this play. While some poster dunks are through people, this one was more "over" Reaves if that makes any sense. He took off right at the bottom of the circle which is fairly insane

and I'll admit my forever "fuck the Lakers" bias is pretty strong on this one. There's a chance that's maybe why I enjoy this play more than others, but the dunk still ruled.

In terms of the finish, it was clean, it had force, and there's no debate as to what type of play you just watched. It reminded me a lot of what fellow Hawk Josh Smith did to Steve Nash way back when, so I give Jalen Johnson extra points for going the nostalgic route. 

On any other night in the NBA, this is clearly the dunk of the night. I'm a firm believer if you watch one of these plays and the first thing you say is "holy shit", you know you have a special moment.

Unfortunately for Johnson, Anthony Edwards also exists, and well…

Now this is what dunking "through" someone looks like. Very different from the Johnson funk above in my opinion. He didn't leap over Collins, he dunked right through that ass with an insane amount of force. If I were to compare moments, I think going "through" a defender in this situation is more impressive than going "over" a defender. Not only are you getting high as shit like Ant did here, but you have the power to go through someone. That's more impressive to me than just having an insane vertical.

The issue of course is the finish. Is that more of a Blake Griffin throw in dunk than an actual poster dunk? I can see both sides. I will say, Ant did tell us he dislocated his finger on that play so technically there was contact with the rim, but there wasn't the same sort of clean dunk finish like we saw Jalen have. If you were to somehow deduct points from Ant, that has to be where you look. 

They both took off from the same spot at the inner circle, and I do think the degree of difficulty on Ant's is higher because Collins did jump and try and make a play whereas Reaves just stood there and tried to take the charge, so to me that matters.

So, who you got?

For me, given the explosion that happened and the degree of difficulty, even though there was a slight "throw in" aspect to Ant's dunk I still think you have to go with him. That sucks because the Jalen Johnson dunk is definitely getting overshadowed and it shouldn't, because on any other night that is an A+ dunk that gets all the love and praise it deserves.