Who is the greatest 'in-game' dunker the NBA has ever seen ?

Question

...and nobody say Shaq.That guy has the agility and gracefulness of a pregnant gorilla.

Answer 1

Vince Carter

The guy is spectacular. You know you're a great dunker when there is a video of your top ONE HUNDRED dunks and he's guaranteed to deliver at least 1 Sportscenter quality facial every other week.

Answer 2

That would have to be "The Human Highlight Film" Dominique Wilkins.The things he did in games back then still amazes me.I can maybe think of one player who maybe comes close(Vince Carter).Players today don't have the fearfulness,the amazing power,creativity,athleticism,(and not to mention crazy vertical leap) that Nique had.Nobody ever gave Wilkins the credit he deserved for being one of the greatest scorers in NBA history.The fact that wasn't on the NBA's 50 Greatest is one thing I will never be able to ponder.
He never had the supporting cast other winning teams had in his era,but he still did pretty damn good with what he did have.If he hadn't been traded by Pete"I'm the dumbest man alive" Babcock and Lenny Wilkens for Danny Manning,he would have stayed and excelled his game even further for the next 5 or 6 years after that.I promise you that.
The man caught an alley-oop and dunked it with ease when he was 43 !
If people won't give Dominique the kind of respect and decency they give almost all other stars of this sport (unfortunately,not enough people respected him while he was still playing),then at least acknowledge the fact that HE WAS the greatest "in-game dunker the NBA has ever seen.And the proof is anybody who has ever truly watched him play.

Answer 3

Wilkins...hands down...in a game he would double pump jam backwards ON AN OPPONENT...not on a break...his Hawks were a very good team but couldnt advance because Birds Celtics and Docs76ers were the best in the East in the late 70s and 80s ...Magic and most of the stars in the league even said they thought Dominique was the best 'game dunker' they had seen...a lot of posters here wouldnt know because theyve only been watching basketball the last 10 to 15 years...

Answer 4

Vince Carter has jump, spin, and uses the dunk as a weapon not only as a good play.

dwight howard is like a small version of shaq, but with much more agility than a pregnant gorilla, he can really jump (shaq can´t), and if you saw the dunk contest you can see that he has body control in the air

Answer 5

greatest in game dunker with agility and gracefulness of a pregnant gorilla...

i got to say Dirk Nowitzki!

Answer 6

Dominique Wilkins.

Vince Carter has performed some spectacular in-game dunks as well, but the quality of big men in the league is now several notches below what it was 20 years ago. Evidence of this is that Shaq and Duncan are the only centers in the NBA who are no-questions-asked Hall of Famers. Ben Wallace has no shot, and Alonzo Morning is questionable.

Of course, it's not Vince Carter's fault that the big men who played during his career sucked big time.

Dominique didn't care WHO was guarding the basket. He provided a lot of highlight reels of dunks over Hall of Fame quality centers.

Julius Erving was as good an in-game dunker as Wilkins, but Erving's best years were spent in the ABA. Still, he had a number of great, great dunks in the NBA as well, including some memorable ones over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (particularly in one all star game) and Bill Walton (during the NBA finals).

Incidentally, Shaq was EXTREMELY agile when he was younger.
But today he's only 50% of the player he used to be (although he's still better than anyone he plays against). He was far more agile than guys like Shawn Kemp.

Jordan had some great, great dunks as well, especially the "oh, what-a-move-by-Jordan" (call by Marv Albert) baseline dunk over Patrick Ewing at Madison Square Garden...that's the play where he was trapped in the corner by two Knicks, but was able to get around them on the baseline (thanks to a palming/traveling violation, which thankfully wasn't called) and slam a one-handed dunk over Ewing. That was an awesome move, when you can get away with it.

Jordan also had a number of dunks over guys like Manute Bol...and even though Bol was the farthest thing from an athletic center, it's always stunning to see a 6'6" guy dunk over a 7'6" (or whatever) guy. He also had a famous dunk over Tree Rollins that was shown on highlight reels for many years.

Once in Utah, Jordan dunked on John Stockton. Some guy from the stands yells out "Hey Jordan, why don't you dunk on someone your own size"...so the next time down, Jordan dunked on 7 footer Mel Turpin....Jordan yells to the guy in the stands "was HE big enough?". That was nice dunk as well.

Scottie Pippen was a great in-game dunker as well, and could dunk with either hand off the dribble...

Lots of players over the years have had great dunks here and there over cetain players...but Dominique was as good as any of them, in terms of just taking to the hoop and dunking it no matter who tried to get in his way. Perhaps one day when Wilkins passes away, ESPN might actually dig some highlights of him from their vaults.

Lebron James is building a nice portfolio of in-game dunks as well... his career highlight film will be fun to watch by the time he's through.

But yeah, guys like Wilkins, Jordan, Erving, Carter, Lebron... these guys are probably the most spectacular, night in and night out, in game dunkers in the NBA.

Answer 7

DOMINIQUE WILKINS !! that guy was sick ! he had a 48" vertical,fearlessness,and a helluva lot more power than today's dunkers do.he won 2 dunk contests,and should've won 2 more(but spud's 5'7 and his teamate and jordan was IN chicago).if you don't believe me,go to youtube.com and watch all the amazing dunks he did in games on videos there. #21 was dunking over people off of missed rebounds when was 37 playing with the spurs !

Answer 8

In a interview Magic said it was "The human highlight real" Dominique Wilkins. I would agree. He was the best at Dunking ON people, (in-game). I think Vince is the best of all time in a dunk contest format. But if a dude is standing in the way Wilkins would 2 foot smash on them. He was the man...

Answer 9

It has to be Shawn Kemp, I love Domonique WIlkins but Shawn Kemp would literally dunk on anyone at anytime. I remember in the finals against the Bulls he was dunking on Rodman in some really sick ways. Dennis Rodman was so tough to dunk on because he would foul the hell out of them, but Kemp would put some nasty dunks on him. Can you remember back in the day when Gary Payton would just throw the ball up from half court and BOOM Shawn Kemp would catch it and drop a bomb that would make the crowd go wild. SHAWN KEMP BY FAR< BUT MAD RESPECT TO NIQUE!!

Answer 10

Dominique Wilkins. He could dunk on anybody during his prime, including 7-foot centers. He also dunked in traffic, that is, over three or four guys underneath the basket. Dr. J and MJ were likewise capable of these astounding feats, but Nique did them with tremendous power and authority. He could also adjust his dunks in mid-air to elude his defenders and still throw them down with authority. Amazing!