The NBA's Greatest Dunker of All-Time
Despite All Challengers, Vince Carter is the King of Dunks
Feb 19, 2009
For almost 50 years the game of basketballhas been injected with an emphatic boost of energy and adrenaline simply known as the dunk. Throughout this time fans of the game have been wowed by a long list a phenomenal dunkers flying through the air in realistic fashions.
Great Dunkers in NBA History
In the 60s there wasElgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain; in the 70s the dunk was revolutionized by Julius Erving, David Thompson and Connie Hawkins; in the 80s Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins lead the show along with Darrel Griffith, Clyde Drexler and Spud Webb; in the 90s Mike was still wowing fans, but so was Dee Brown, Shawn Kemp and Kevin Johnson; and in the new millennium the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Nate Robison have delighted, providing numerous highlight moments.
However one man stands alone, leaping over each and every single one of these majestic mashers and that man is Vince Carter, the greatest dunker of all-time.
More ingenious than Baylor, more elegant than Wilt; more innovative than Dr. J, more artistic and vibrant than Thompson or the Hawk; more explosive and eye-popping than Mike, more dynamic than Nique; more powerful than Clyde more brilliant and graceful than Spud and Dr. Dunkenstein, more splendid than the Reignman, more dominant than Dee, more splendid than Nate, more extravagant than Superman; much more glorious than LeBron and even more dazzling than Kobe; that is what Vince Carter has meant to the art of the dunk.
Each of those men were and some still are incredible masters of the dunk, however Carter embodies all of them and took everything which they may have done to a whole different level.
Vinsanity at 2000 NBA Slam-Dunk Contest
Early on in his days at the University of North Carolina, Vince displayed his amazing athletic abilities wowing the crowds at Chapel Hill and across the ACC on a nightly basis. But it was during his rookie season of 1998-99, when the entire sports world began to notice exactly how incredible he really was. During the lockout-shortened 50-game season, the man nicknamed Air Canada assisted the Toronto Raptors in opening the Air Canada Centre and bringing a whole new excitement about basketball to the city of Toronto and the entire country of Canada.
The very next year is when Mr. Carterplaced his name on the list with some of the greatest dunkers ever. The performance that Vince Carter put on at the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was easily the greatest collage of dunking displays in the history of the event. The array of dunks which Carter showed off during that evening (the reverse 360 windmill, the between-the-legs off the bounce alley-oop from Tracy McGrady and the honey dip) earned him another of his many nicknames, Vinsanity, due to the insanity level of which his dunks made spectators reach.
Carter's Olympic Dunk Over Weis
Vince had much more to prove in 2000; during the summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Vinsanity reached an entirely different status. In the third game of the tournament against France, Carter would hurdle the 7’2” French center, Frederic Weis on his way to an authoritative finish at the hoop, in the U.S.’s 104-96 victory.
Never before in any in-gamesituation had any player ever performed such an astonishing feat and afterwards Weis want no more part of American basketball players. Weis was drafted by the New York Knicks in 1999, however after Carter’s monstrous highlight, Weis never made the trip over to the NBA. The French media dubbed the dunk “le dunk de la mort”, which translates to “the dunk of death”.
Throughout his 11-year NBA career, Carter has defied the laws of gravity on an almost nightly basis and absolutely no one does in-game, what he does, like he does it.
The League Pass Dunk
The dunk refer to by many as“the League Pass dunk” a few years back against the Miami Heat, when he obliterated Alonzo Mourning, over the back with one hand, was breath-taking.
In the 2005 All-Star gamein Denver when Carter threw if off of the backboard and hammered it home with two hands everyone, everywhere jumped out of the seats. It was unseen, the lane didn’t clear out as it did during the ’09 rendition when LeBron emulated Vince’s phenomenal feat, VC went through a packed and crowded lane catching everyone by surprise.
Just this past season Cartershowed he still had it, catching a reverse alley-oop, off of an inbound pass with one second remaining in overtime to help his New Jersey Nets knock-off his former team, the Raptors 129-127.
During his career, there hasn’t been a dominant big man who hasn’t felt Vince Carter’s wrath at least once or twice. Go down the list; Dikembe Mutombo, Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Rik Smits and anyone else that you can possibly think of have all been placed in posters of highlight reels courtesy of one Vince Carter.
Vince Carter’s name will live synonymous with the word dunk forever and next to the word, in a dictionary, encyclopedia or any other informative publication should be a picture of one of his sensational slams.
Despite all challengers, Vince Carteris basketball’s all-time slam dunk king!
