I’ve been stuck in quite the writer’s block in recent weeks. Plenty of things have gone on in the world of sports, but my creativity has been at an all-time low. One thing I thought I could do to help fix/prevent this is to do a series of articles that I can fall back on whenever I feel I need to produce something.
So, for my first series, I’m going to talk about and share with you a handful of my favorite dunks that have ever taken place in the history of professional basketball. For those of you who don’t know what a dunk is, here’s the Merriam-Webster definition for the term: “to throw (a basketball) into the basket from above the rim.”
Now, we’ve all thrown down hammering jams over our little brothers in the backyard on our 5′ Fisher-Price hoops, but the NBA is different..very different. These are grown men, massive men flying through the air towards each other. These are men so high up in the air that they come crashing down onto a TEN FOOT TALL rim with such ferocity that rarely ever does it end well for the person on the receiving end.
This series will include a variety of dunks from history, and there may not be an end in sight. The dunks featured in this series are in no specific order or timeline. We’ll do as many dunks per article as we feel necessary. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Let’s get started.
DeAndre Jordan’s annihilating oop on Brandon Knight:
This first dunk is absolutely one of my favorites of all-time. It happened in March of 2013 in a game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons. Chris Paul tossed up a ball to DeAndre Jordan during the second quarter. What came next was very good for Jordan and very bad for the defender under the rim, Brandon Knight.
The noise is gruesome. It’s so heavy and loud that, not only can you hear the actual dunk itself, but you can hear what’s left of Brandon Knight’s lifeless body clap onto the floor. Knight doesn’t get up for a very long time, and the longer you lay on your back after being dunked on like that, the worse it is for you. It took three Pistons to raise Mr. Knight back from the dead.
What makes it all even better (or worse if you’re Brandon Knight) is that a foul was called. This was an and-one.
I was in Las Vegas last month, and five minutes into us arriving we hear the loudest bang and shattering of glass from upstairs where one of the girls we were with was showering. A few seconds of silence was followed by the most helpless, faint “help” I’ve ever heard. Turns out both shower doors had crashed on top of her shattering all over her.
This is the only thing I can imagine now when thinking of poor Brandon Knight in the moments following what happened to him. The screaming and yelling drown out all other noises in the arena, but I’m almost positive you’d hear a soft, weak, helpless cry as Knight lay there in despair.
Another thing that makes this so awesome is Jordan’s face afterwards. He walks away from the crime scene making a face that says “sheesh, I may be convicted of murder for that.” It was so violent and so powerful that after the ball goes through the hoop it bounces off screen. The ball realized it had just been used as a weapon and is now evidence in a murder case, and it actually fled the scene.
I think my favorite reaction is Matt Barnes (22) down at the bottom of the screen. He jumps and turns and runs straight down the court, probably to grab a stretcher for Knight. The rest of the Clippers jump off the bench and run around the court in utter shock that their teammate just took a human life right in front of them. To this day, I still wonder what Knight was thinking. If Jordan ever came flying through the air like that towards me, I’d run the complete opposite way. So much could’ve been avoided.
Shaq makes a very angry man out of Chris Dudley:
This second jam makes me laugh every time I watch it. Like the previous dunk, this also happened in the month of March, but it was 14 years prior to DeAndre’s. Knicks @ Lakers in 1999. Shaquille O’Neal, a dominant big man in the league (and future Hall of Famer) received the ball with his back against his defender Chris Dudley (not a future Hall of Famer BUT future nominee for Governor of Oregon) who was known for his defense and shot blocking.
As you see, no shots were blocked in the making of this video. Shaq backed him up in the post and spun to the other side, lifting his gigantic body up into the air and with two hands slamming the ball through the hoop. If this was all that took place, I probably wouldn’t be writing about it right now. Good thing this wasn’t all that took place.
Shaq was close enough to Dudley while he was swinging on the rim that he was able to kind of wrap his legs around Dudley while he swung into him and dropped back down to the court. After his feet were back on the ground he gave Dudley a shove which resulted in Dudley falling to the floor, as Shaq jogged back down the court.
O’Neal had zero time for Chris Dudley. He tossed him right down to the floor like you do your siblings in a wrestling match. Dudley, very upset with Shaq at this point, stood up and proceeded to hurl the basketball down the court at Shaq while yelling “F&%K YOU.”
I don’t know why I find it so funny knowing that he’d later be a nominee for governor of a state. Watching him angrily walk up the court like he’d do any bit of physical damage to Shaq cracks me up. However, I’d be pretty angry too if a large man treated me worse than he probably does to trash bags while tossing them into the dumpster.
Many consider this the most disrespectful dunk ever, and while I agree that it was very disrespectful in an awesome way, it’s not MY vote for most disrespectful (more on that some other time).
This had been a heated game up to this point, with an ejection and fighting between Knicks Kurt Thomas and Lakers Dennis Rodman. Even better, Dudley and Shaq had beef from a couple years before from a playoff series. Dudley grew upset at the number of times Shaq would rough him up without being called for a foul, so Dudley committed a serious foul (a cheap shot that could’ve hurt Shaq badly) on Shaq to set him straight. Two years later, Shaq hadn’t quite forgotten about that.
Blake Griffin meets Kendrick Perkins in outer space:
For this last dunk, I’m taking it back to the LA Clippers team from the first jam. It was the same core of DeAndre Jordan, Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin. This dunk happened in January of 2012, and it was another assist from Chris Paul, of course.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were playing against the Clips in Los Angeles, and it seemed like a normal night. Paul dishing dimes as usual, but this didn’t end with just a normal basket. This one ended with what’s arguably Blake Griffin’s greatest dunk ever.
Griffin slipped away from his man and cut towards the hoop. Kendrick Perkins was the last line of defense and shifted to try and stop BG from scoring. This was a mistake. I love when two ginormous men fly through the air and meet at the peaks of their jumps. Their momentum stops, and it’s like time stops as well. They stall in the air for a second before either a block is made or a basket is scored. This is what happens here.
Kendrick goes up and meets Blake in the air, they collide, and stop in the atmosphere together. It reminds me of when Harry Potter and Voldemort both cast spells at the same time, and the laser looking things from their wands meet right in between them, as they try to overpower each other. Only, in this version, Harry dunks the absolute hell out of Voldemort.
The force of Perkins’ body against Griffin’s has little to no effect. With his arm extended, he continues to swing it through the air with enough force to split an atom. After what seems like an eternity, Blake returns safely to planet earth, and DeAndre Jordan rushes over to grab Griffin in what I’m sure was an attempt to keep him grounded so that he wouldn’t immediately float up through the roof to take his place among the Gods.