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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Top 5 Dunk Contests of All Time

Me and Marcus had a heated discussion on who the best dunker was the other night...and then we went on to list our top 5 dunk contests (contests as a whole that stand out, primarily due to the winner of that dunk contest). I happened to watch the TNT special on the dunk contest last night and it highlighted some contests I forgot about. Here are my top 5.

5. Dwight Howard "Superman" - 2008 Contest - Still fresh in everyones mind and doesn't get enough credit, I put this one in the top 5 due to the theatrics and showmanship and it puts Howard on the map as the next greatest dunker, his superman dunk will forever be remembered as one of the best!
4. Igudala vs. Robinson - 2006 Contest - This one was actually pretty epic in terms of a battle between 2 dunkers, the fact that Robinson could do what he did being so small stunned all of us...however Igudala actually won this contest in my mind, he was the first to pull off the toss behind the backboard catch and dunk which was just sick when he did it. Robinson won after 20 attempts at another sick dunk between his legs and jumping over Spud Webb was classic!
3. J.R. Rider - 1994 Contest - I remember when J.R. Rider the year before won the college contest with pretty much the same dunk, the between the legs dunk had never been seen before and when he brought it out and did it even better in the All-Star contest this has to be a top 3 performance.
2. Vince Carter "Half Man, Half Amazin" - 2000 Contest
This probably was the best of all time, the dunks he performed were sick and never seen before. What also makes this a great dunk contest is that no props were used, except for McGrady's help on quite argubly the sickest dunk ever (ball thrown up, catch between the legs and dunk), this was one of the classic contests of all time, when he did that dunk it was "all over" as Kenny Smith screamed out and Carter motioned with his hands.
1. Jordan vs. Nique - 1988 Contest - This is the all-time epic battle of the dunker, maybe the 2 best dunkers of all time going at each other in an overtime dunk off and then Jordan pulling out the foul line dunk to close it out..."A 50, the gave Jordan a 50"!!!

HM: 1986 Spud Webb - You can argue that this could have been the best dunk contest of all time given the size of Spud and how he just climbed in the air
1984 Larry Nance - The first contest in the NBA All-star, Nance had some great dunks when he did a windmill and dunked behind himself and then also did the 2 ball dunk.
1987 Jordan Dunk contest - Kiss the Rim orginiated here, one of the best dunks of all time!!!
2003 Jason Richardson - You forget his performance but go back and look at that contest, this was a down time in the dunk contest but he did some nasty dunks
2005 Josh Smith - This is credited with putting the dunk contest back on the map, the Nash header to Stoudamire, J.R Smith with the nasty behind the back dunk, and Josh Smith winning it with a tribute to the legend Dominque putting on his jersey and doing his trademark windmill to a T!!!
2009 - I will say this is probably the most entertaining I have seen, the 12 foot rim, the kryptonite green uni, shoes, and ball...it was disappointing at the end but Robinson did pull of some sick dunks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only one I would add, is my favorite contest of all-time, the '89 contest with champ, Kenny "Sky" Walker. Walker was a royal bust as a Knick, but on this day, he put on one of the most dazzling displays of power dunking I've ever seen; absolutely Dominique-esque.

RomoCop

Anonymous said...

Yes I would have to agree that in the HM list of contests this '89 contest is in their...some very creative and dazzling dunks for that time!

- Otto