4. TRACY McGRADY Tracy McGrady tried to tell us he's not in the upper echelon of dunkers in the League today. Yeah, right. For those of you who followed T-Mac in high school, you remember earlier than that as he stood head and shoulders ... check that, knees and ankles above his prep counterparts. As a relative unknown in Toronto, T-Mac lurked quietly behind VC but when he showed, it was usually in the form of a jarring dunk. Now no one sleeps on this graceful and nasty aerial Rocket. Defining Dunk: We were there. All-Star Game 2002 in Philly. About 10-rows behind baseline. McGrady drove upcourt, flipped the ball up with his left hand off glass, weaved mid-air through the West and threw it down with his right hand. Hard. T-Mac on dunking: "Elevation. Creativity. First of all, you've got to get up high enough to put the ball in. Second of all, you've got to have some style with your dunk. You can't be plain. You've got to have some type of creativity because that's what people want to see. That's what describes your personality, the type of person you are." The rest of the Top 10 is here: http://www.nba.com/inside_stuff/ten_dunkers_041230.html
On that same nba.com page about the best dunkers, they have the best in-game dunks of all time. There was a dunk on Olajuwon that made the list: Kevin Johnson: The Bad Dream (1994) Whether it's on the playground or in the NBA, big men feel a sense of entitlement to the paint. That's where they operate, where they earn their keep; they cede the rest of the court to the guards, but the precious space inside the key belongs to them. So when little men venture into their turf, the giants usually un-invite them by putting them on the floor. Well, this one was for little guys everywhere. Kevin Johnson-all 6-1 of him-was not going to be denied, especially on this day. After beating Kenny Smith on the left baseline, it was all a Dream for KJ. Hakeem Olajuwon stood in front of the basket waiting to serve up one of his nightly block specials. Johnson didn't knock on the big-man door for entry, he kicked it wide open for passage with this monstrous one-handed number over one of the best centers to ever play. Does anyone have a clip of this?? I've been looking for it forever but I was never able to find it. If someone has a clip it would be awesome if you could post the link...thanks
Please, I remember this dunk. He stuck his elbow out and hit Olajuwon to get some leverage. Should have been on offensive foul. Check this link out http://www.nba.com/suns/news/kjohnson_scrapbook_page3.html
Yeah, like 5 minutes later. The Rockets won that playoff game, I believe. How many championships does KJ have?
Well that TOP 10 dunkers in the NBA Inside Stuff must be just based on hype or style, but not REALLY on the recent form and performance of the players !!! Vince Carter maybe great in the past in dunking, but currently he is ranked REALLY LOW in the dunk-o-meter http://www.sportsline.com/nba/dunk-o-meter As of now, the top 10 dunkers are:- 1 Shaquille O'Neal C MIA 90 2 Amare Stoudemire C PHO 84 3 Pau Gasol PF MEM 45 4 Dwight Howard PF ORL 43 5 Kenyon Martin PF DEN 43 6 Yao Ming C HOU 43 7 Stromile Swift PF MEM 40 8 LeBron James SF CLE 39 9 Nazr Mohammed C NY 38 10 Dwyane Wade PG MIA 36 Do you guys realize Yao Ming is joint 4th with Dwight Howard and Kenyon Martin ???
Actually Hakeem blocked KJ on his ASS a couple of plays previous with one of the best blocks ever. It sadly seems to be easily forgotten however...
yeah, kj had what appeared to be a breakaway dunk after a pass from barkley but as he went up hakeem came flying out of nowhere and sent it into the stands and kj fell on his ass after the dunk. considering the height differential on the kj dunk, and the distance differential on the hakeem block, i'd say they were equally improbable and spectacular. amazing the same two guys were involved in two such amazing plays. the hakeem block on strickland after throwing the pass away at midcourt was hakeem's other legendary (at least imo) block. the quickness and athleticism he needed for both blocks is just something so few other centers have ever shown. can you imagine shaq being able to change direction and chase down strickland like that?
Hakeem's running block from behind on KJ was amazing. He came from halfcourt, leaped from almost the free throw line, and swatted the ball into the 4th row. KJ's dunk was a borderline offensive foul, Hakeem was the weakside help on that one I believe, and didn't have good positioning.. kind of like when Kobe dunked on Yao in 2002 and sportscenter replayed it 32465235657247 times making every idiot think Yao got own3d or something.
see.. it even says it on the nba.com link posted in this thread! "Kobe Bryant - Defining Dunk: The downright ugly baseline facial he gave Yao Ming in February 2003."
