NBA Top 10 Dunkers #9: JaVale McGee
“Apparently, if you get a fast break and throw it off the backboard in the third quarter, and you’re 1-11, you’re not supposed to do stuff like that.”
That’s a quote from JaVale McGee after he was benched for trying to showboat with his team down.
On a good day this is what McGee can pull off:
Here’s the reason he’s so good at dunking. He’s tall. When it comes to athleticism, McGee and Dwight Howard aren’t too far apart. When it comes to defence, the two players are very far apart. Although McGee blocks and rebounds well, he doesn’t command the paint like Howard does. What McGee knows to do well is dunk.
Come hell or high water, McGee came to dunk. And dunk he will.
Or won’t. McGee came to dunk. But sometimes his heart is bigger than his vertical.
But his intent shouldn’t be in doubt. He intends to dunk. He has a vertical leap of 33 inches and a 7’2″ wingspan to go with it. McGee’s dunking is helped and marred by his height. Tall players aren’t seen as as good dunkers as short ones because they need to cover lesser height for their dunks. Dwight Howard had to increase the height of the rim to 12 feet in the dunk contest for one of his dunks. Well he didn’t have to. He just did. Seemed like that dunk of Howard’s could not be one upped.
Until McGee came along and put two rims side by side to dunk on simultaneously. Only a tall man with a dinosaur’s wingspan can do that:
While JaVale McGee has become a meme for stupidity in the NBA, the time seems ripe for a fresh start following his trade to the Denver Nuggets. Look at the time he pulled off a putback dunk for a win:
The rocky mountains of Denver are pretty high. Higher still does McGee leaps around over there. And he is number 9 on our list of top 10 dunkers in the NBA today. Check back on 17th November for number 8 on the list.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Josh Smith