The New Age of the Dunk Competition

I’d like to comment on Gerald Green’s barefoot dunk in hopefully less boring fashion than Dr. J. Dwight Howard was fantastic. He deserved to win. However, the most underrated dunk in the history of dunks was Green’s barefoot, between-the-legs dunk. I’m not sure I could even touch the net in bare feet. He pigeonholed himself by doing a "normal" between-the-legs dunk earlier in the competition but he was robbed of his proper due. Darryl Dawkins even knocked Green’s shoes off the judges table in a sign of disrespect for the dunk.

The best dunk of the night, IMO, was Howard’s dunk from behind the basket. That was truly unbelievable. I would love to know if other NBA players can do that dunk. The most entertaining dunk of the night easily goes to Green for his “Birthday Cake” dunk. He was also robbed of his proper due on that one because it could only be truly appreciated in slow motion. Darryl Dawkins gave him an “8.” Video replay should be afforded to the judges. Dunks have gotten so good that people can’t even tell how good the dunk was without the aid of video replay. Also, Dawkins needs to issue a public apology for being the worst judge in dunk history.

One last note: I enjoyed the showmanship of Howard’s “Superman” dunk but it wasn’t a dunk. Kenny Smith played into it nicely by suggesting that Howard throwing the ball through the hoop was just a testament to how high Howard jumped and was done purposefully. I replayed it a number of times and you can clearly see that Howard was too far away from the rim to complete the dunk so he threw it. It looked good live so he didn’t pay the price.

Anyhow, here are my three favorite dunks of the night…

#3 Gerald Green's "Barefoot, between-the-legs" Dunk (3:00 mark)




#2 Gerald Green's "Birthday Cake" Dunk





#1 Dwight Howard's "Behind the Backboard" Dunk (2:00 mark)