The dunk is basketball’s most lionized play. Essentially the most iconic ones are canonized, referenced fondly and infrequently, debated for his or her deserves and significance. The game’s language has created so many names for it: jam, yam, slam, poster, stuff, hammer. It’s a novel membership that solely few on this world can be part of. It’s marvelous.
And it hurts like hell.
“Are you able to consider some other idea the place your hand swings at one thing metallic?” 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers asks. “It’ll most likely damage, yeah?”
When requested, gamers catalog the ache dunking has prompted: damaged nails; bent fingers; latest bruises; lasting scars; midair collisions; twisted necks; harmful landings. Accidents that value them video games and even seasons.
Derrick Jones Jr., a former NBA All-Star Weekend dunk contest winner now with the Dallas Mavericks, factors out two particular marks on his left wrist. Larry Nance Jr., one other excessive flier in his ninth NBA season and third with the New Orleans Pelicans, recollects childhood recollections of his father’s scarred arms from a 14-year NBA profession that included profitable the first-ever dunk contest in 1984. Dallas’ Josh Inexperienced remembers one pregame dunk that set his nerves afire.
“I bear in mind considering, ‘Why would I do that earlier than a recreation,’” the 23-year-old Inexperienced says.
And but nonetheless they dunk.
Within the fashionable NBA, the dunk’s frequency has been rising, going from 8,254 within the 2002-03 common season to 11,664 final 12 months. The rise is usually as a result of 3-point revolution and the elevated spacing and cleaner driving lanes that include it. However the league additionally has taller, extra explosive athletes getting into yearly. With them come much more spectacular aerial feats, ones that enrapture followers and wow even the gamers who witness them.
What gamers consider the dunk, and the agony that may include it, is ever altering. This isn’t some new development. It’s simply that the dunk, for all its attract and mystique, is essentially the most visceral mark of a participant’s maturation.
Basketball’s most unique membership, one solely entered 10 ft within the air, isn’t one which gamers can — or at all times need to — stay in ceaselessly.
Dennis Smith Jr., now a member of the Brooklyn Nets, had a 48-inch vertical as a prospect, however says now his struggles with touchdown affected his capturing kind. (Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE through Getty Photos)
When younger basketball gamers first begin dunking, they by no means need to cease.
“It makes you the man,” Dennis Smith Jr. says.
Smith’s first in-game dunk was an off-the-backboard slam in a state title recreation when he was 13. His workforce was up large and his teammates have been exhibiting off. “Now it’s my flip,” the 26-year-old Brooklyn Nets guard recollects considering. “I acquired one.” An in-game dunk is a standing image he has by no means forgotten.
Willie Inexperienced, now the top coach of the New Orleans Pelicans after a 12-year NBA profession, was instructed as a youngster that toe raises would assist him attain above the rim. Each morning within the bathe, he counted to 300 — rising onto the balls of his ft with every quantity till this membership lastly let him in.
“Should you might dunk, folks seemed as much as you, they glorified you,” Inexperienced says. “You felt such as you acquired over a giant hurdle in basketball. It was an enormous step in basketball once I was capable of dunk.”
Each participant requested remembers how outdated they have been once they first began. “You’re younger, you’re bouncy,” Markieff Morris, 34, says. “You dunked so you could possibly speak your s—.” It was the very first thing children like him did entering into the gymnasium, the final earlier than they left.
“Whenever you’re first dunking, your fingers are stuffed with blood due to the (contact),” Philadelphia 76ers ahead Nicolas Batum recollects. “However you get used to it. You may have a lot pleasure of dunking. You’re one of many few folks on the earth that may.”
As soon as gamers begin dunking in video games, it turns into much more addicting. “Whenever you attempt to dunk on somebody, you’re overvalued, you’re amped up,” the New York Knicks’ Donte DiVincenzo says. “You don’t really feel any of that s—.” It’s the identical as any adrenaline excessive. “It appears like vitality,” 21-year-old Mavericks guard Jaden Hardy says. Because the crowds develop larger and the reactions reverberate louder, it’s even higher.
Marques Johnson, a five-time NBA All-Star who retired in 1990, remembers one slam he had at age 15 in a summer season league over a participant who had simply been drafted to the NBA. To dunk on him, to knock him to the bottom, proved one thing.
“As a younger participant, in case you can hold with guys on the following stage,” he says, “it turns into that validation that you just belong.”
Johnson, at present the Milwaukee Bucks’ tv analyst, performed collegiately for UCLA, the place he was named the Naismith Faculty Participant of the 12 months in 1977, the primary season the dunk was re-legalized in faculty basketball. “I actually consider it’s a giant purpose why I received,” he says. “Folks ain’t seen a dunk in faculty basketball in 10 years.” Johnson, a hyperathletic 6-foot-7 ahead, took up residence above the rim.
As soon as, he missed two weeks with a knee sprain after dunking on a teammate in follow and touchdown arduous. As he lay on the bottom in ache, he nonetheless remembers what his first query was.
“Did the dunk go in?”
“Yeah,” he was instructed. “You dunked on him.”
Marques Johnson, proven right here with the Bucks, believes dunking was a giant purpose he was the Naismith Participant of the 12 months in 1977. (Heinz Kluetmeier / Sports activities Illustrated through Getty Photos)
Final season, Christian Wooden rebounded his personal miss and located an empty path to the rim. He dribbled as soon as, planted each ft, hurled the ball by way of the rim — after which clutched his left hand as he ran again down the courtroom.
Wooden, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer season after his one season with the Mavericks, completed the sport however missed the following eight with a damaged thumb. “I went for a tomahawk (dunk), attempting to look flashy for some purpose, and hit my thumb once more,” he says. He had already injured it, he says, however that’s the second when he knew he “had actually damage it.”
As youngsters age into veterans, their relationships towards dunking usually change. “To essentially dunk constantly within the NBA, you gotta be a freak athlete.” Rivers says. For individuals who aren’t, dunking turns into extra akin to a device than a feat.
“S—, these issues are actually including up,” the 26-year-old DiVincenzo says. “Plenty of the youthful guys need to dunk each single time. I’m not like that anymore.”
DiVincenzo nonetheless dunks — he had 9 final 12 months with the Golden State Warriors — however prefers layups when potential. It isn’t at all times potential, although. “Generally, (a dunk) is the one manner to attract fouls,” he says.
When Willie Inexperienced neared the top of his profession, he recollects hating when defenders compelled him into it.
“They’re chasing you down arduous on a quick break, and also you need to lay it up, however you already know in case you lay it up, they’re going to dam it,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Man. You made me dunk that.’”
Inexperienced was a two-foot dunker, which meant accelerating into the air was arduous on his knees, particularly the left one, which was surgically repaired in 2005. “That drive, that gravity, compounded with coming down,” he says. “It takes a toll on you.”
Smith, the ninth choose within the 2017 draft, entered the league with a record-tying 48-inch vertical — and with a harmful behavior of coming down on one leg. Whereas recovering from knee surgical procedure, he discovered to land on each of them. “I don’t even give it some thought now,” he says. However he nonetheless does thoracic remedy to deal with scar tissues in his wrist from his childhood dunks, which he believes has had an impact on his capturing kind.
The league’s freak athletes, those Rivers referenced, do have totally different experiences. Nance Jr., who remembers his father’s forearm scars, has none of his personal. His palms are giant sufficient to engulf the ball relatively than pinning it towards his wrist. “I by no means actually discovered the best way to cup it like all people else,” Nance says. “I genuinely don’t consider I might do it if I attempted.” He drops the ball by way of the rim relatively than counting on inertia.
“Not likely,” he says when requested whether or not it hurts. “Except I miss.”
Gamers like him nonetheless expertise ache from the midair collisions and the misses: when the basketball hits the cylinder’s rear and sends shock waves by way of their arms; when an opponent’s determined swipes hit flesh and nerve; when the crash of our bodies sends theirs sprawling to the ground.
Anthony Edwards, one other alien athlete, doesn’t even seek advice from what he does as dunking. “I don’t actually dunk the ball,” he says. “I simply put it in there nearly all of the time.” Earlier this month, although, Edwards elevated over the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder’s Jaylin Williams, nicked him on the shoulder and got here crashing again down.
Although Edwards solely missed two video games with a hip harm, the Timberwolves’ rising star admitted he was “scared” and “nervous” in his first recreation upon returning. And even when missed dunks don’t injure him, there’s nonetheless satisfaction.
As Edwards mentioned of them final season: “These damage my soul.”
Anthony Edwards, proven right here after a dunk in final season’s Play-In Event, was not too long ago injured on a dunk try towards Oklahoma Metropolis. (Adam Pantozzi / NBAE through Getty Photos)
Kyrie Irving had stolen the ball and was alone on the basket in a December recreation when he rose as much as dunk in entrance of his personal bench. His Dallas teammates had already risen as much as rejoice — till they couldn’t.
“I mistimed it,” he says. “My momentum wasn’t there.” The ball grazed the entrance of the rim and fell out.
The 31-year-old Irving is understood for each type of spotlight besides dunking, of which he has solely 25 in his 11-year profession. However a flubbed dunk is embarrassing even for a participant like him.
“You simply really feel dangerous!” he says. “We’re the most effective athletes on the earth. I ought to have the ability to stand up there occasionally.”
Later that quarter, the 6-foot-2 Irving had one other probability at a wide-open quick break, at redemption. This time, he made certain to show he might nonetheless do it.
“I needed to double pump,” he says, laughing now. “I needed to stand up there, bro. I couldn’t come within the locker room to my teammates, teaching employees, higher administration. They might’ve been on my head.”
Nonetheless, as gamers develop nearer to retirement, they usually hold up their dunking careers first.
Rivers, who stays a free agent after spending his eleventh season with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022-23, not too long ago retired from dunking. “I simply choose laying the ball up,” he mentioned final 12 months. “A dunk takes quite a bit out of me.” It was the arduous landings that in the end acquired him to cease, however he believes he turned a greater finisher as soon as he made the choice.
It’s simpler for veterans who by no means wanted to play above the rim. Like, say, Stephen Curry, who appears amused he was requested about one thing he hasn’t executed in a recreation since 2018.
“I had no drawback letting that a part of myself go,” the 6-foot-3 Curry says. “I very simply moved on to the following chapter of my profession.”
Batum, a 35-year-old with 367 profession dunks, additionally swore off contested dunks earlier than final season. “My physique instructed me,” he mentioned. “It mentioned, ‘No extra, bro.’” Now he solely dunks, gently with two palms, when he is aware of he’s alone on the rim.
“Whenever you hit 32, the sport isn’t about dunking anymore,” says Morris, now in his thirteenth NBA season. “It’s about longevity and nonetheless with the ability to play at a excessive stage.”
Caron Butler needs he had realized that sooner. When he was youthful, Butler, who had two All-Star appearances earlier than retiring to develop into a Miami Warmth assistant coach, practiced as arduous as he performed.
“I overemphasized the 2 factors I used to be attending to show a degree or showcase my God-given skill,” he says. “It might have given me extra longevity.”
Butler doesn’t have any regrets. However he thinks concerning the dunk in a different way now.
“It’s simply two factors.”
Caron Butler, proven right here leaping between two Cavaliers through the 2008 NBA playoffs, mentioned his angle towards dunking modified as he acquired older. “It’s simply two factors,” he says. (Ned Dishman / NBAE through Getty Photos)
It’s simply two factors.
“I’m listening to an outdated man speak,” Butler says. “That’s what 13-year-old Caron Butler would say. He would say, ‘I’m listening to a really outdated man discuss dunking.’”
He’s not the one retired participant who sees the irony. Inexperienced thinks his youthful self, the one who counted his toe raises within the bathe, would really feel equally
“13-year-old me would actually be disgusted proper now,” he says.
However Inexperienced did dunk once more earlier in 2023, a windmill slam in a January follow that had his gamers hollering in amazement. “They at all times inform me I can’t dunk,” he says. “I wished to point out them I had slightly juice.” Inexperienced, the league’s fifth-youngest head coach, says that one among his teaching qualities is his relatability.
“Whenever you’re asking excessive stage skilled athletes to do one thing, it helps for them to know that you just’ve executed it,” he says. “And it helps to know once they have a look at you that it seems such as you nonetheless can do it.”
For others, it’s one thing that hearkens again to the previous: to the adrenaline rush they first felt, to the validation it gave when their NBA careers have been nonetheless desires. Klay Thompson, maybe this sport’s second-best shooter ever behind Curry, his Warriors teammate, says among the finest moments of his profession was a dunk. After lacking two consecutive seasons with main surgical procedures, in his first recreation again, he drove to the rim and slammed one. Thompson knew in that second, he says, that the Warriors might nonetheless win one other championship — and later that season, they did.
The tip results of Klay Thompson’s dunk by way of a number of Cavaliers in his first recreation again from ACL and Achilles accidents. (Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Photos)
Thompson used to walk onto the courtroom and dunk as quickly as his sneakers have been on. “Now, I want a very good hour to get the gears greased and the motor working,” he says. As his physique has modified, so too has his appreciation for what dunking means.
“It’s at all times a tremendous feeling hanging on the rim which you can (neglect) most individuals can’t do it,” he says. “I not take it as a right.”
It’s simply two factors for these membership members, sure, however it’s greater than that. For Johnson, the previous Naismith Faculty Participant of the 12 months, dunking nonetheless means one thing particular. Johnson turns 68 in February, and he plans to proceed his private custom that started when he was 55: dunking on his birthday.
It’s motivation, Johnson explains, to remain in form, which was impressed by his son, Josiah, who movies it yearly. It began changing into tougher when Marques turned 60. “The primary two makes an attempt, I’m barely getting above the rim,” he says. It’s tougher to palm the ball as his palms lose energy, and it often takes till the fifth or sixth strive earlier than he succeeds.
Johnson, who had hip surgical procedure this summer season, doesn’t know if he’ll succeed subsequent 12 months. In spite of everything, he solely makes an attempt to dunk on his birthday, by no means in-between. “I do know, ultimately, I’m not going to have the ability to do it,” he says. However his restoration has gone nicely, and he feels good he’ll dunk as soon as extra subsequent February.
He nonetheless remembers it, misses it.
“I bear in mind them vividly: the joy, the adrenaline dashing by way of your physique,” he says. “So the dunk, as you’ll be able to inform, has meant a complete lot to me.”
When requested what his youthful self would take into consideration listening to him discuss dunking now — this unique membership he first joined as a 14-year-old sporting slacks and gown sneakers, one which has represented ache and pleasure, growing older and authenticity — Johnson as a substitute chooses to show the query round.
“I’d inform 16-year outdated me,” he says, “do it till the wheels come off.”
(Illustration by Rachel Orr / The Athletic. Photographs of Derrick Jones Jr. (left) and Anthony Edwards (proper): Amanda Loman and David Berding / Getty Photos)
