(Fox Sports) Greatest 'In Game' Dunks of all time

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Top 10 'Best Damn' dunks

With all due respect to Spud Webb, any list of the Top 10 dunks of all time should be limited to those slams when someone was actually trying to prevent a basket.

As for exhibition dunks, the greatest of all time is Kenny Smith's between-the-legs-bounce-pass-from-the-foul-line-catch-and-reverse cram that may never be surpassed. But that's another list. In honor of the Best Damn Sports Show's Top 50 Game Dunks (Tuesday, 10:30 p.m.), here are my top 10.

10. The Human Highlight Reel

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Dominique Wilkins has a whole catalogue of ridiculous dunks, including a baseline reverse against the Bucks that seemed positively CGI'd. But my favorite 'Nique jam came against the Celtics and victimized the greatest front line in league history.

Wilkins shot a jumper from the top of the key over the outstretched hand of Kevin McHale and that's when the fun began. Following his shot, Wilkins blew by McHale and went up and over Robert Parish and Larry Bird to catch his own rebound in mid-air and flush it. He basically posterized an entire wing of the Hall of Fame.

9. (tie) Chocolate Thunder and the Big Aristotle

Grace and athleticism dominate this list, but this shared entry is dedicated to sheer destructive force.

Darryl Dawkins set the standard in 1979 when he dropped in from Lovetron to explode a backboard in the Spectrum with a violent two-hander that he drew behind his head for max power. No matter how many times you see it, it's still jaw-dropping, mind-popping, heart-stopping and chart-topping.

Dawkins' destruction of the backboard not only established a new standard for the power jam, it necessitated physical changes in the equipment. The rim would no longer explode out of the glass when subjected to undo force. The tech guys thought they had solved the problem with the collapsible rim. They clearly could never have envisioned Shaquille O'Neal. Of all the high-risers in NBA history, only one player has ever hit his head on the shot clock.

Of course, in Shaq's case, he brought the shot clock down on himself when he pulled down the entire stanchion against the Nets in 1993 in an incredible display of brute strength that served notice the world — and the rim, backboard, shot clock, etc. — was his.

7. Sonic Boom

Remember when George Brett came flying out of the dugout during the Pine Tar Incident? This was approximately the level of violent intensity with which Shawn Kemp regularly attacked the rim during his prime years in Seattle. In a body of work as wide and deep as it was brutal and without remorse, two dunks stand out.

In 1990 he caught a bounce pass at the foul line and burst to the basket against former slam dunk champ Kenny "Sky" Walker. With Walker set to meet him at the summit, Kemp somehow adjusted himself in mid-air, ducked under Walker's outstretched arm, contorted himself past the defender and threw down a vicious reverse. Yikes.

But the Kemp sledgehammer that rang the bell the loudest came in 1993 against the Warriors Alton Lister. It looks like something out of an action movie. Kemp's sense of purpose is unreal as he erupts from the top of the key, tucks the ball like a running back at the goal-line and takes it right at one of the best shot-blockers in league history. The resulting right-cross punch-dunk and spread-eagled humiliation of Lister is the defining slam of Kemp's spectacular dunking career.

6. J Swoops on Coop

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Spectacular dunks are usually delivered on poor defenders or immobile big men. But Julius Erving's soaring, open-court, rock-the-cradle cuff dunk against the Lakers in the 1983 Finals was spiked on Michael Cooper, one of the best defenders of his generation.

Off a James Worthy turnover, Dr. J came flying down the left wing, picked up his dribble just inside the 3-point line, took two massive strides and exploded toward the rim. Cooper had an angle and some serious hops himself, but once Erving had cradled the ball and wound up the windmill, resistance was futile.

5. Tom Chambers Uses Mark Jackson

If you don't remember this 1989 dunk, you're probably assuming Tom Chambers is here as a kind of affirmative action. But just ask Mark Jackson if this one belongs on the list. Jackson was in his Rookie of the Year season when Chambers and Kevin Johnson came down on a 2-on-1 break in Phoenix. Johnson dealt to Chambers on the left elbow and the 6'10 forward planted his left foot and leapt at the rim, ignoring the little matter of Jackson's presence underneath him.

When Chambers' right knee hit Jackson's sternum the collision served as a stepladder sending Chambers up and over the rookie until he was looking down into the basket. The resulting two-handed jam was accentuated by Chambers tilting his head to the left to avoid hitting it on the rim.

4. K.J. Slays the Dream

The whole key to David's victory over Goliath was that he essentially buried him with a 3-pointer. This is historically how little guys have toppled behemoths — from a distance. But in Game 4 of the 1994 Western Conference semis Kevin Johnson took a different tack.

With the 7-foot Hakeem Olajuwon, the most prolific shot-blocker in league history, guarding the basket, the 6'1 K.J. decided to go for the up-close knockout, rising above the giant and cramming violently in his mug. The Dream got posterized as the Suns point guard became the Nigerian's nightmare. (Hakeem would awake to lead the Rockets to back-to-back titles.)

3. Starks Reality

John Starks has done some crazy things on a basketball court. Head-butting Reggie Miller and chucking up that ill-fated 18th shot in the '94 Finals despite being 2-for-17 at the time come immediately to mind. But the most insane thing he ever did on a basketball court was in Game 2 of the '93 conference finals against the Bulls. I speak, of course, of The Dunk. Starks used a Patrick Ewing screen to beat his man to the baseline then went airborne with Horace Grant between him and the basket and Michael Jordan hovering just off his wing.

It looked like the impetuous Starks had leapt into no-man's land but he just kept rising and rising until ... he flushed it, blowing the roof off Madison Square Garden. The stakes. The locale. The athleticism. This dunk had it all. And it had one thing that sets it apart from the rest of the jams on this list: it was executed with the opposite hand. John Starks' ridiculous left-handed dunk in MSG was not only a pivotal play in a playoff game but had the added allure of including M.J. among his victimized defenders (though Grant came closest to the true facial).

2. Rarefied Air

With so many to choose from, it was hard to go with just one Michael Jordan dunk. (Jeff Haynes / Getty Images)

With so many absurd throw-downs to choose from, Michael Jordan's baseline jam on Patrick Ewing in the '91 playoffs remains his signature dunk. The play began with Jordan double-teamed by John Starks and Kiki Vandeweghe, a trap from which he easily extricated himself with a hard ball fake that fooled the Knicks defenders and gave M.J. room to drive to his left. Starks pursued and was joined by another double-teamer, the imposing Charles Oakley, as Jordan reached the baseline.

Now, with Starks to his right, Oakley in front of him and a boundary to his left, his Airness was bottled up with nowhere to go. Or was he? Like a 6'6 black Houdini, Jordan baited the aggressive defenders into thinking he was trying to pull the ball back out, only to spin back to the baseline, blowing past Oakley. As Jordan took off for the basket, the 7-foot Ewing came over as New York's last line of defense.

Ewing did manage to foul Jordan, hitting M.J.'s dunking arm with both hands. But to no avail. Jordan spiked the ball in the helpless center's face, stunning the Madison Square Garden crowd for the greatest dunk ever on North American soil.

1. The Lipton

Frenchman Frederic Weis will be remembered for two things: being a wasted Knicks' first-round draft pick and getting obscenely facialized by Vince Carter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Carter stole the ball and came flying toward the basket with only Weis between him and a monster slam. Though he no doubt could have gone around the gawky center with a simple crossover, Carter instead decided to go over him, a tougher task given Weis's 7-foot-2 frame.

The Vin-sane one took off on what seemed sure to be a collision course but kept going up, up and away, spreading his legs as his groin grazed Weis's face. The vicious dunk was almost beside the point. Vince had leapt a tall building in a single bound. After the abject humiliation, Weis no doubt felt vindicated in his decision not to give it a go in the NBA.

The French called it le dunk de la mort — the dunk of death. In the states, it is simply called the Lipton.

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I think it's a great list, and each description conjures up the image in my head so perfectly, no big deal that Dream was in there as a victim, he's gotten his on just about everyone in the league. If you don't challenge, you don't succeed.

 

Well he did say that Hakeem led them to back-to-back titles, which he didn't even have to do since it isn't about him.

Good call on the T-Mac dunk...top 20 easily.

 

No that was a different game.

It seems to me that everybody's getting defensive about Hakeem getting dunked on...the guy is my favourite player of all time and i have no problem with the fact that it happened, you challenge a dunk and your chances are 50-50.

I respect guys like Hakeem and Zo who man up to challenge the player, unlike players like Shaq who only ever challenge weak-side lay-ups by point guards.

Hakeem usually comes out on top in these situations, let's not get too cut about it.