The dunk is basketball’s most lionized play. Probably 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 a 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 steel?” 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers asks. “It’ll most likely damage, yeah?”
When requested, gamers catalog the ache dunking has brought on: damaged nails; bent fingers; latest bruises; lasting scars; midair collisions; twisted necks; harmful landings. Accidents that price 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 reminiscences of his father’s scarred arms from a 14-year NBA profession that included successful 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 yr. The rise is generally 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 pattern. 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 toes within the air, isn’t one which gamers can — or all the time wish to — stay in eternally.
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 type. (Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE through Getty Pictures)
When younger basketball gamers first begin dunking, they by no means wish 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 massive and his teammates have been displaying 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 advised 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 toes with every quantity till this membership lastly let him in.
“For those who might dunk, individuals appeared as much as you, they glorified you,” Inexperienced says. “You felt such as you acquired over an enormous hurdle in basketball. It was an enormous step in basketball once I was in a position to dunk.”
Each participant requested remembers how previous they have been once they first began. “You’re younger, you’re bouncy,” Markieff Morris, 34, says. “You dunked so you may speak your s—.” It was the very first thing kids like him did entering into the fitness center, the final earlier than they left.
“Once 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’ve got a lot pleasure of dunking. You’re one of many few individuals on the planet that may.”
As soon as gamers begin dunking in video games, it turns into much more addicting. “Once you attempt to dunk on somebody, you’re puffed up, 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 seems like vitality,” 21-year-old Mavericks guard Jaden Hardy says. Because the crowds develop greater 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 time 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, when you can dangle with guys on the following stage,” he says, “it turns into that validation that you just belong.”
Johnson, presently the Milwaukee Bucks’ tv analyst, performed collegiately for UCLA, the place he was named the Naismith Faculty Participant of the Yr in 1977, the primary season the dunk was re-legalized in school basketball. “I actually imagine it’s an enormous motive why I received,” he says. “Folks ain’t seen a dunk in school 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 observe and touchdown exhausting. As he lay on the bottom in ache, he nonetheless remembers what his first query was.
“Did the dunk go in?”
“Yeah,” he was advised. “You dunked on him.”
Marques Johnson, proven right here with the Bucks, believes dunking was an enormous motive he was the Naismith Participant of the Yr in 1977. (Heinz Kluetmeier / Sports activities Illustrated through Getty Pictures)
Final season, Christian Wooden rebounded his personal miss and located an empty path to the rim. He dribbled as soon as, planted each toes, hurled the ball by way of the rim — after which clutched his left hand as he ran again down the court docket.
Wooden, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer time 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 motive, 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 persistently within the NBA, you gotta be a freak athlete.” Rivers says. For many 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. “A number of the youthful guys wish to dunk each single time. I’m not like that anymore.”
DiVincenzo nonetheless dunks — he had 9 final yr with the Golden State Warriors — however prefers layups when attainable. It isn’t all the time attainable, although. “Typically, (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 exhausting on a quick break, and also you wish to lay it up, however when 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 exhausting 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 type.
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 massive sufficient to engulf the ball quite than pinning it in opposition to his wrist. “I by no means actually discovered methods to cup it like everyone else,” Nance says. “I genuinely don’t imagine I might do it if I attempted.” He drops the ball by way of the rim quite than counting on inertia.
“Probably not,” he says when requested whether or not it hurts. “Until 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 discuss with what he does as dunking. “I don’t actually dunk the ball,” he says. “I simply put it in there the vast majority 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 Match, was just lately injured on a dunk try in opposition to Oklahoma Metropolis. (Adam Pantozzi / NBAE through Getty Pictures)
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 have fun — 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 thought for each form 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 unhealthy!” he says. “We’re the most effective athletes on the planet. I ought to be capable of stand up there occasionally.”
Later that quarter, the 6-foot-2 Irving had one other likelihood 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 workers, higher administration. They’d’ve been on my head.”
Nonetheless, as gamers develop nearer to retirement, they usually dangle up their dunking careers first.
Rivers, who stays a free agent after spending his eleventh season with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022-23, just lately retired from dunking. “I simply want laying the ball up,” he mentioned final yr. “A dunk takes lots out of me.” It was the exhausting landings that in the end acquired him to cease, however he believes he grew to become 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 carried out in a recreation since 2018.
“I had no downside 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 advised 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.
“Once you hit 32, the sport isn’t about dunking anymore,” says Morris, now in his thirteenth NBA season. “It’s about longevity and nonetheless having 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 grow to be a Miami Warmth assistant coach, practiced as exhausting as he performed.
“I overemphasized the 2 factors I used to be attending to show some extent or exhibit my God-given capability,” he says. “It might have given me extra longevity.”
Butler doesn’t have any regrets. However he thinks concerning the dunk otherwise 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 Pictures)
It’s simply two factors.
“I’m listening to an previous man speak,” Butler says. “That’s what 13-year-old Caron Butler would say. He would say, ‘I’m listening to a really previous 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 observe that had his gamers hollering in amazement. “They all the time inform me I can’t dunk,” he says. “I needed to indicate them I had a bit of juice.” Inexperienced, the league’s fifth-youngest head coach, says that one in all his teaching qualities is his relatability.
“Once you’re asking excessive stage skilled athletes to do one thing, it helps for them to know that you just’ve carried out it,” he says. “And it helps to know once they take 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 goals. Klay Thompson, maybe this sport’s second-best shooter ever behind Curry, his Warriors teammate, says probably the greatest 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 Pictures)
Thompson used to walk onto the court docket and dunk as quickly as his sneakers have been on. “Now, I would like a great 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 all the time a tremendous feeling hanging on the rim which you can (neglect) most individuals can’t do it,” he says. “I now not take it with no consideration.”
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 Yr, 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 turning into more durable when Marques turned 60. “The primary two makes an attempt, I’m barely getting above the rim,” he says. It’s more durable to palm the ball as his palms lose energy, and it often takes till the fifth or sixth attempt earlier than he succeeds.
Johnson, who had hip surgical procedure this summer time, doesn’t know if he’ll succeed subsequent yr. 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 properly, 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 thrill, the adrenaline dashing by way of your physique,” he says. “So the dunk, as you’ll be able to inform, has meant an entire 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 costume sneakers, one which has represented ache and pleasure, growing old and authenticity — Johnson as an alternative chooses to show the query round.
“I’d inform 16-year previous me,” he says, “do it till the wheels come off.”
(Illustration by Rachel Orr / The Athletic. Images of Derrick Jones Jr. (left) and Anthony Edwards (proper): Amanda Loman and David Berding / Getty Pictures)