B/R Staff: 20 of Our Favorite Dunks Since 2000 for NBA Leap Day

Welcome to 2024 NBA Leap Day.

It's the holiday you never knew you needed, or even knew existed. But it's about to be your favorite celebration of skywalkers, air-time artists and prime-time posters that froze so many poor, unfortunate defenders' souls leaving their human bodies.

It also happens once just every four seasons in leap years, so cherish it while you can.

To honor the NBA's 20th such occasion playing games on February 29—since the league's inception as the Basketball Association of America in 1946—Bleacher Report's NBA staff came together to spotlight 20 dunks since 2000 that were once instant legends but still have a lasting legacy to this very day.

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Hit the comments to share the post-2000 dunks that stick with you most, and check back four years from now when we hit 20 of Our Favorite Dunks Since the Last NBA Leap Day. Seriously. Book it.

Vince Carter: THE Dunk (2000)

Every once in a while, a play from beyond the confines of the NBA commands our attention. During the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Vince Carter delivered such a moment.

The play developed innocently enough. Gary Payton struggled to maintain his handle on the ball, but he eventually stumbled into an open driving lane and smoked a layup.

France had a transition opportunity the other way, but instead of initiating a run-of-the-mill break, Yann Bonato tried to get a little too saucy. He threw a behind-the-back pass that was picked by Carter and doomed Frédéric Weis.

From the moment he made the interception, it was clear where Carter was headed. It didn't matter that Weis was 7'2". It didn't matter that that 7'2" obstacle was directly in Carter's line to the basket. Air Canada was going to clear that obstacle.

And poor Weis was left looking around in bemusement at the aftermath (which included an all-time fist pump from VC that almost connected with Kevin Garnett).

—Andy Bailey

Vince Carter: 360 Windmill with a Reverse Twist (2000)

For me, personally, some of the most memorable NBA jams took place during moments of cliche. In other words: The Slam Dunk Contest.

Cherishing spectacle for spectacle's sake isn't inventive. The contest exists firstly for the garish and secondly for the unseen. But there's something inarguably special about uncontested yams being the central event.

In-game smashes can be missed, especially now, not only because you don't know they're coming but also because we are conditioned to multitask past the point of focus. Dunk contests forcibly, perhaps mercifully, root us to the moment, ensuring the replays that follow aren't the first full, uninterrupted view of what the hell just happened.

And this brings me to Vince Carter's reverse 360-degree windmill during the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. Peripheral distractions were fewer back then; the stakes were not. This was his first attempt of the night, a go-round preceded by his saying he had four ideas in his arsenal nobody had ever before seen.

His delivery is perfect, in every imaginable way. His takeoff is subtle, his spin abrupt, his throwdown so ferocious you feel it sitting at home, his facial expression on the journey back to solid ground one of invested animation.

Reactions from those in attendance only further tattoo this to memory. Shaquille O'Neal, holding a camcorder that now seems comically huge, had his eyebrows swallowed by his forehead. Kevin Garnett looks like he's trying to understand the physics of what Carter just did. Dikembe Mutombo wears a type of disbelief beyond measure.

This is the moment that rebranded the dunk contest as "back." And it's one of the dunks that continues to hold up in the pantheon of all-timers.

—Dan Favale

Tracy McGrady: Climbing Mount Bradley (2005)

Injuries may have limited the lifespan of his career, yet few players over the past 20-plus years have had more impressive peaks than Tracy McGrady.

One of the best athletes of the 2000s, he combined a 6'8" frame with a 43" vertical to bless us with some amazing dunks, although perhaps none as impressive as his one on Dallas Mavericks center Shawn Bradley in the 2005 playoffs.

McGrady is originally defended on the play by Dirk Nowitzki before driving baseline and yamming all over Bradley's head. For those counting at home, that's 14 feet and six inches worth of man McGrady went around and over, all in a matter of seconds.

"I was hoping he was going to jump. That's a poster for my kids that they can see when they're growing up," McGrady said after the game.

At 7'6", Bradley is tied for the second-tallest player in NBA history. He averaged 3.0 blocks or more per game in each of his first six seasons, leading the league with 3.4 in 1996-97. Even he made a business decision against McGrady, originally shedding Yao Ming before taking cover as the All-Star wing came crashing down on top of him.

Kevin Harlan's call of "Oh, he just sucked the gravity right out of the building!" is one of his all-time greats, and bonus points go to Rockets guard Jon Barry for rolling on the ground as McGrady finishes his jam.

Let this serve as a reminder of just how amazing prime T-Mac was.

—Greg Swartz

Kobe Bryant: Steve Nash Never Stood a Chance (2006)

Before Kobe Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to back-to-back titles (2009-10), there was an uncertain stretch if he would ever win one again without Shaquille O'Neal.

As the Lakers found themselves (pre-Pau Gasol), Bryant did incredible things on the court, such as scoring 81 points in a game. Meanwhile, Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP awards while the Phoenix Suns became an NBA powerhouse.

And Bryant, with players like Smush Parker, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton in the starting lineup, gave Phoenix a scare in the first round of the playoffs.

The Bryant/Nash rivalry (though they became teammates near the end) was best summed up in a single play: Bryant just exploding to the rim in a scramble with Nash flying to the floor.

The Suns went on to win the series, and Bryant had so many memorable moments in his career, but is there one that best expressed his frustration and hunger to get back on top than the throwdown on Nash?

—Eric Pincus

Baron Davis: We Believe We Can Fly (2007)

Before the Golden State Warriors were in the NBA Finals nearly every year, the franchise had a long, long playoff drought.

With just two appearances and a single game in the win column dating back to 1992, the surprisingly diehard fans by 2007 were ravenous for success. Then the "We Believe" Warriors, led by guard Baron Davis, went on a joyful run two-round run.

As the No. 8 seed, the Warriors spoiled Dirk Nowitzki's MVP regular season by upsetting the 67-win Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Next up were the fourth-place Jazz, who took a 2-0 advantage after a pair of tightly contested games in Utah. Game 3 was that last shining moment for that Warriors squad, best expressed by Davis' emphatic cram on Andrei Kirilenko.

While that run didn't stick beyond a single year, Golden State became a playoff fixture by 2013, and the Warriors' fanbase has been well-rewarded for its patience.

—Eric Pincus

Gerald Green: 'He Blew It Out!' (2008)

There are a lot of theories about why the Slam Dunk Contest has lost so much of its pizzazz over the years, but nobody ever cites the failure to involve baked goods as a key reason. That seems like an oversight.

Gerald Green is the first, last and only participant to trust in the power of pastry, and he must be celebrated for that.

His 2008 dunk, which involved blowing out the candle on a cupcake he'd placed atop the rim, had everything: the buildup of teammate Rashad McCants climbing a ladder to put the cupcake in position, the perfect camera angle that shows Green's head at the rim and the delirious moments before he leapt where everyone wondered "Is he really going to do this?"

Beyond all that, there's just something appealing about a dunk where the act of putting the ball through the rim is secondary. Green's eyes are on that cupcake the whole time. He had so much bounce, it's as if he needed something else to do while he was up there.

—Grant Hughes

LeBron James: 'With No Regard for Human Life!' (2008)

We could easily assemble a top-20 dunks list of just LeBron James as he's given us some of the most jaw-dropping jams of the past 20-plus years.

That being said, there's just something special about his dunk on Kevin Garnett in the 2008 playoffs.

James was only 23 at the time and could jump out of the gym at 6'8". He made a living at the rim, going over, around and oftentimes through opposing defenders.

Garnett was special, though.

Long considered one of the best defenders in the NBA, he would actually win his only Defensive Player of the Year award this season while also finishing third overall in MVP voting. It was his first year as a member of the Boston Celtics, the same season he, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen would win a title together.

This mattered little to James, who took a screen from Joe Smith to dribble by both Pierce and James Posey before throwing down a powerful right-handed dunk on top of Garnett. James even gets pushed mid-air by Garnett, yet he still finishes the slam.

This essentially sealed the Game 4 win for the Cavs, tying the series at the time after Cleveland originally began in an 0-2 hole.

Of course, Kevin Harlan's call of "LeBron James with no regard for human life!" is one of the great dunk, nay, basketball calls of all time and puts a perfect bow on an all-time playoff slam.

—Greg Swartz

Derrick Rose: Don't Jump, Dragic (2010)

There's an age-old axiom in the NBA that applies to plays like Derrick Rose's timeless, two-handed flush over Goran Dragić: Don't jump.

When one of the league's premier above-the-rim finishers locks in on the basket, even the best rim protectors have to have hints of doubt about going up with him.

Can I actually meet him at the apex? Am I about to go viral? For the wrong reasons?

For Dragić, specifically, that second question might need to be replaced with something poster-related. This play happened 13 years ago. But whatever might've dissuaded him from trying to contest Rose up high didn't actually do the trick. And Dragić wound up looking helpless against a seemingly levitating Rose.

He caught the ball around the elbow on a fast break, took one dribble to set up a two-foot liftoff and then floated to a ferocious finish. And just for good measure, he threw in a spinal tap between the jump and bucket.

—Andy Bailey

Blake Griffin: Mozgov'd (2010)

It's not often that a dunk can turn a man's name into a verb. Yet, that's what Blake Griffin did in 2010 to Timofey Mozgov.

This was early in Griffin's career, after coming into the NBA with tremendous hype as the No. 1 overall pick in 2009. He lost his first season to a knee injury, and he hadn't quite made a name for himself yet through the early days of his second "rookie" campaign.

That all changed with the New York Knicks visiting Los Angeles. Griffin exploded on the Knicks for 44 points, including a few career-defining dunks—notably at Mozgov's expense.

Now, Griffin had a signature, jumping high enough above the time to throw it in from about three feet away. That, coupled with using his off-arm on the center's head, forged the term "Mozgov'd." Used in a sentence: "Search this list for when Blake Griffin Mozgov'd Kendrick Perkins."

Bonus: Amar'e Stoudemire's nod to Griffin later in the game was a symbolic passing of the torch between power dunkers.

—Eric Pincus

Blake Griffin: The Pick-and-Perk (2012)

If you weren't there to live the early-years Blake Griffin experience, it's hard to appreciate what it felt like.

Every open-floor sprint carried with it the potential for violent outbursts of athleticism. Every roll to the hoop meant there was a chance you might see a 7-foot defender reduced to rubble.

Griffin dunked with a level of merciless intensity we haven't really seen since.

This slam from 2012 might be the best encapsulation of the way he could so easily turn a routine play into an exhibition of savagery. This is nothing but a simple pick-and-roll from the wing, and the help defense from Kendrick Perkins arrives on time—only it doesn't matter because Griffin takes a simple one-two step before using Perkins to rise even higher.

He throws the ball downward through the rim, we're treated to Ralph Lawler's signature "Oh me, oh my!" call and the whole arena loses it. The tone of the crowd says everything.

It's a cheer, yes, but not the usual kind. The mixture of awe, concern and jubilation is what you hear when a heavyweight boxer connects with a punch so devastating and sudden that observers are as excited as they are concerned.

—Grant Hughes

Jr Smith: Wrong Foot, Right Result (2013)

I'll cop to this being a niche dunk that might not have the iconic status of others on the list, but I'm a sucker for anything done wrong-footed on a basketball court.

Smith's man loses him in the corner, which triggers a simple backdoor cut to the rim. Pablo Prigioni sees Smith moving along the baseline, comes around a screen…and this is where things get interesting.

Smith is already leaping off his right foot before Prigioni delivers the ball, which comes in about waist-high. Rather than stopping to gather and go up for what could have been a layup, he decides in mid-air to take another route...a much, much cooler route.

He catches the ball low, transfers it to his right hand, glances up at the rim as he flies past it and reaches back to rifle it through the iron without looking. Wrong foot. No look. That's double bonus points, and you can tell from the reaction of Smith's Knicks teammates that they appreciate how easily he completed a dunk with an off-the-charts degree of difficulty.

—Grant Hughes

DeAndre Jordan: Lob City Preview (2013)

Occasionally, a dunk obliterates someone; and in this case, RIP Brandon Knight.

This was during the pre-Doc Rivers "Lob City" era of the LA Clippers. Chris Paul to DeAndre Jordan, who just destroyed Knight. It's one of the best live dunks ever, and Jordan's stink face in the aftermath said it all.

The victims rarely get the props they deserve. Credit Knight for expertly reading the play from the weak side. There was only so much a 6'3" guard was going to do to stop the 6'11" Jordan off the perfect pass from Paul, but he certainly tried.

The Clippers never quite lived up to expectations, but this was when they began to emerge from the shadow of the Los Angeles Lakers and caught the world's attention as must-watch hoops with athletes like Blake Griffin and Jordan throwing down jaw-dropping dunks on the regular.

And, yes, that's New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green on the Clippers' bench.

—Eric Pincus

Aaron Gordon: Under and Over (2016)

Much like Vince Carter's performance during the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest, the showdown in 2016 between Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine brought the All-Star Weekend event back from the edges of rudderless repetition. The dunks were spectacular, made even better by the combination of theater and an actual duel.

No smash from that night stands out more, to me, than Gordon bringing the ball under his legs while sailing over the Orlando Magic mascot, Stuff The Magic Dragon.

Air Gordon's aerial assault had everything. The degree of difficulty is absurd. He's sailing sideways and needs to grab the ball out of Stuff's hands. The mid-jump coordination it takes to cleanly snare the rock and bring it under his legs—cleanly—is beyond my comprehension.

Gordon's repetitive use of "Stuff"—who, by the way, won Mascot of the Year in 2016—also plays nicely. It's the perfect amount of pageantry, because it didn't lack creation. Stuff's costume aesthetics help; the use of a hoverboard on a separate dunk is even better.

The crowd's reaction is the cherry atop this delectable, dunk-contest-reviving sundae. There's a palpable anticipation as Gordon sets up his second "FU" to gravity. Players on the sidelines are standing, the fans are murmuring among themselves, Charles Barkley is being Charles Barkley, etc. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight and many rewatches, I'm not sure if this collective angst is hopeful or skeptical. Gordon roped the world in with his first dunk; could he really do the same with his second?

He did. It was an encore that exceeded its predecessor, a feat far tougher than we often realize. And with all due respect to LaVine, this is the jam that should have sealed Gordon's victory.

—Dan Favale

Zach LaVine: Raising the Bar (2016)

Do I think Zach LaVine should have won the 2016 NBA Slam Dunk Contest? No, I don't. Aaron Gordon's body of work wire-to-wire was better suited to victory.

Is this also one of the best dunks of all time, bar none? Abso-freaking-lutely!

Habitual party-poopers will yell (mostly at clouds) about how LaVine took off approximately one Kevin Durant shoe size from inside the charity stripe. Big whoop. "Foul line dunk" has long been code for "Basically a foul line dunk." And pulling off basically a foul line dunk is hard.

LaVine, though, manages to inflate the degree of difficulty by going between the legs. And he does so in a fashion that feels unplanned (even though it wasn't). It feels like there is a nanosecond's worth of hesitation as his body nears the dotted semi-circle, and he doesn't actually finish shuttling the ball through his legs until he's past the restricted area.

Watch this enough times, and the timing of each sequence lends itself to an air of dramatic uncertainty. LaVine, of course, completes the one-handed sledgehammer (when he's no longer eye level with the rim, mind you. See, more drama). And the afterburn of his dunk is almost as electric as the jam itself.

Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, John Wall, Stephen Curry, Tracy McGrady and pretty much everyone on the sidelines are all beside themselves. KAT, in particular, wears a look of awe the moment LaVine takes flight from (basically) the foul line. Steph actually stood up in real time, as if he had a life-changing epiphany.

And LaVine expertly drives it all home with his post-physics-pummeling showmanship. Miming a call to inform the powers-that-be this contest has concluded is right in line with Vince Carter's iconic "It's over" PSA during the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest.

—Dan Favale

Richard Jefferson: GOAT Christmas Day Dunk? (2016)

Richard Jefferson's dunk on Klay Thompson on Christmas Day 2016 may not be the most physically impressive slam we've seen, but it is extremely special for a number of reasons.

First, Jefferson was 36 at the time and only two seasons away from retirement. This was one of only 15 dunks he had in his 74 games this season.

Second, this is arguably the greatest Christmas Day game of all time. The Cavaliers had just knocked off the 73-win Warriors in the 2016 Finals, with this marking the first meeting between the two since their legendary seven-game series and first with Kevin Durant now in Golden State. Cleveland would win 109-108 despite Durant putting up 36 points and 15 rebounds.

Jefferson had some previous history with Thompson and the Warriors, as he spent a season-and-half with Golden State as the dynasty was just beginning to form.

"Klay's my guy, so this is going to be a real fun conversation to have," Jefferson later told ESPN's The Jump. "So the next time we saw each other at the scorer's table it was fun. I had Klay as a rookie, I had Draymond as a rookie so anytime I can get anything on these guys it's so much fun."

In a game full of memorable moments, this is the dunk that stands out the most.

—Greg Swartz

Larry Nance: Like Father, Like Son (2018)

Having one member of a family compete in a Slam Dunk Contest is an impressive feat. Having multiple generations talented enough to enter, however, is truly remarkable.

This was the case when Larry Nance Jr. took part in the 2018 dunk contest, honoring his father who had competed 34 years earlier.

Larry Nance won the first dunk contest in 1984 before Nance Jr. was even born, besting a field that included Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Clyde Drexler and others.

Nance Jr. honored his dad by pulling off the same "rock the cradle" dunk, even quick-changing into pop's old-school Phoenix Suns jersey.

Nance Jr. had been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers just nine days earlier, joining the franchise where his father spent the second half of his career, made a pair of All-Star teams and later had his jersey retired.

While Nance Jr. has his own highlight reel of dunks, this one was the most special for obvious reasons.

—Greg Swartz

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Look Out Below (2018)

At first watch, Giannis Antetokounmpo's dunk over Tim Hardaway Jr. in 2018 looked like a great, but perhaps not legendary, slam.

Upon further review, though, Antetokounmpo ended up doing something rarely seen outside of the Slam Dunk Contest itself.

After Khris Middleton intercepts a Knicks pass, he and Antetokounmpo are off to the races with only Tim Hardaway Jr. standing in their way. Middleton lobs a pass up (which is still roughly eight feet away from the rim) only for Antetokounmpo to catch it with one hand and finish the dunk while jumping completely over Hardaway.

Antetokounmpo makes the dunk look so easy that Madison Square Garden doesn't seem to know what just happened. Hardaway is 6'5". People can't just casually jump over someone who's 6'5", right?

This was also the season before Antetokounmpo would win his first MVP award, as he made his second All-Star appearance and increased his scoring to a career-high 26.9 points per game. While he was adding muscle, it clearly didn't affect his leaping ability.

—Greg Swartz

Anthony Edwards: Just Oof (2021)

This one is just mean.

Watch Anthony Edwards casually stroll to the corner near the start of this video. There's no hint of bad intentions there. And the Toronto Raptors probably couldn't have anticipated what was about to happen based on the opening of this possession.

But then DeAndre' Bembry, who was assigned to Ant, got caught making two critical mistakes. First, he overhelped on a Jordan McLaughlin drive. Then, when McLaughlin kicked to Edwards in the corner, Bembry unsuccessfully tried to shoot the gap. And that left Ant with an open line from the corner to the rim. Yuta Watanabe tried to come across the paint to challenge the attempt, but all that earned him was some infamy.

I have a specific spot for you to pause the video above. At 0:46 seconds, in the replay, Edwards' face is at the rim. His arm is parallel to the floor and 10 feet off of it. Watanabe looks like he's been consumed.

This is about as nasty as posters get. And it's not surprising that Edwards was the author of it.

—Andy Bailey

Aaron Gordon: Christmas Day Clutch (2022)

On Christmas Day, 2022, Aaron Gordon went coast-to-coast to absolutely obliterate Landry Shamet and his attempt to take a charge. In overtime. With the game on the line.

Typically, just about everyone on that Denver Nuggets roster makes the "right" basketball play, and that certainly includes Gordon. But his intent to destroy the rim on that play was a lot stronger than the one to dump the ball off to an open Nikola Jokić. And the results of that decision are now immortalized all over the internet.

This play happened about six months prior to Denver's Finals win. It came against another Western Conference contender that many felt was better than the Nuggets. And it came in a victory that sort of served as a wakeup call to the rest of the league.

The small-market Nuggets had been toiling away in injury-riddled obscurity for a couple seasons. On this holiday, national TV showcase, they stood out. And Gordon's jam was the exclamation point.

—Andy Bailey

Ja Morant: Signature Tomahawk (2023)

Ja Morant has made a number of plays in his career that seem to defy the laws of physics.

He's listed at 6'2", eight inches shorter than Jalen Smith, who challenged this attempt. On this dunk, he takes off with both feet outside the restricted area. And when he's about halfway to his apex, he has the ball cocked so far behind his head that his arm is parallel with the floor.

Going from that point A to the rim's point B seems impossible. But Morant did it. In the halfcourt. After beating two guys off the bounce.

This is just an absurd play from someone who's been one of the league's most entertaining at-the-rim finishers from the moment he arrived.

—Andy Bailey