Greatest Dunker Ever?

Supposedly, Joey Johnson, DJ's litle brother, was a monster leaper and dunker. He went to the same JUCP as Gus Johnson (no relation) and there's a bar there in which they drove a nail into the wall at the highest point Gus ever touched. Joey's supposedly the only one since who's been able to touch the nail. He couldn't play a lick, although the US track and field guys came to him and tried to get him to train as a high jumper.

 

For the best dunk in a game situation, it has to be Vince over Weis.

 

The Honey Comb kid - loved watching him play and the battles that he and Dave Debussere had.

 

Orlando Woolridge could put down a dunk or two during his prime.

 

Not to mention Pearl (in his Baltimore days) against Clyde and Dick Barnett.

 

Anyone who knows basketball history knows Connie was the first of his kind.
Long before there was a Magic Johnson Connie was a 6-8 player with guard skills, especially when it came to his ability to put the ball on the floor, create and pass.
Long before there was a Dr. J, Connie used his enormous hands, long arms and jumping skills to knife through crowds for dunks. Wilt and Kareem both said Connie had the biggest hands they had ever seen. He would palm the ball on the move off the dribble - just pick up the ball with one hand straight off the dribble - and then use his other hand to create some space against bigger, stronger players.
If it had not been for the injustice he faced from age 18 to 28, Connie would be regarded as one of the top 10 players in NBA history. Instead, the men of his age regard him as a master, a creator, an artist who did things never seen before.
For more on this, read "Foul: The Connie Hawkins Story," by David Wolf. It's one of the primary reasons why I became a sportswriter.

 

No question about the Hawk. He got fucked by the system.

 

Julius ("Dr. J") Erving, Connie Hawkins, George ("Ice") Gervin, David Thompson

 

Spud Webb '86.

 

Ice rarely dunked and when he did, it wasn't that spectacular. And I'm talking as one who remember when he broke in with the Virginia Squires.

 

I've heard pleople tell me David Thompson and Connie Hawkins were the best they'd ever seen. And no love for Spudd Webb?

 

And while he wasn't the best dunker ever, Tom Chambers had one of the nastiest I'd ever seen. Can't remember who it was on, but the two-hand slam job that time, it's still played on dunk shows.