Best Signature Moves in NBA History: Power Forwards

Almost every great player has some sort of signature move.

Michael Jordan had the dunk from the free-throw line. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had the sky hook. Allen Iverson had the crossover.

Look at a list of all-time power forwards, and you'll find the old timers aren't like the stretch 4s we see in today's game. They're the bruisers, the ones who dominate around the rim.

Mostly, power forwards are scorers or rebounders. The greats are both and certainly have a chance to show off some flash. The best ones do it in the most consistently comfortable ways. 

Check out the first three parts of this series, in case you missed the rundown of the best signature moves from the point guards, shooting guards and small forwards. Now, on to the power forwards.

Dirk Nowitzki One-Legged Fadeaway

There's an actual Sport Science about this.

Dirk is a freak. His fadeaway shot shouldn't actually happen. Somehow, it does, and he makes it without any sort of effort.

It's a combination of length, height and accuracy. The best shooting seven-footer in NBA history is always able to get good looks against smaller defenders, even if he's off balance. He's consistently been able to do it, and even at 36 years old, he's still nailing that shot all the time.

Charles Barkley's Coast-to-Coast Dunk

We think of him now as this bullish, hilarious commentator who says ridiculous things before, during and after NBA games every Thursday night, but once upon a time, Barkley was one of the most exciting players in the NBA.

Nowadays, we look at someone like Blake Griffin or DeMarcus Cousins and think, "Woah! Look how athletic big men are today! Look how they can grab rebounds, go the distance and dunk on the other end!" Except Barkley would do that all the time.

He could bully you inside, carve you up from outside (sometimes) and destroy you in transition. Above is an example of the latter.

Kevin Love's Outlet Pass

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin Love. He's not great. We get it. It's cool and trendy to criticize him now, even though the Cleveland Cavaliers can't seem to lose a game.

Still, Love's outlet passes are legendary. Possibly the only man in history whose dishes of such type compare is Hall of Famer Wes Unseld. 

Rasheed Wallace's Technical Foul

'Sheed was/is/will always be hilarious. No one has ever talked like him. No one.

There is actually a rule now that players get suspended once they hit 16 total technical fouls on the season. Are we supposed to believe that doesn't have everything to do with him?

Wallace had 38 techs during the 1999-00 season. 38!! That is incomprehensible, just barely under one every other game. So naturally, he topped it the following year, getting T'd up 41 times in his 77 games played.

That's a joke. It's also the best thing in basketball history. By the end, he was getting reputation techs all over the place, like in the above video.

Shawn Kemp's Alley-Oop Finish

Today, if you want phenomenal in-game dunking, you look to Los Angeles to find Griffin or DeAndre Jordan. 20 years ago, though, Seattle was the place to be.

Can you imagine how much those Sonics teams would've blown up if we had Twitter in the mid-1990s. Back then, there might not have been a more exciting play in basketball than a Gary Payton to Shawn Kemp alley-oop, and this was during an era that included guys like Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and the like. 

Kemp could absolutely throw down, and Payton lobbed it to him perfectly. It was Lob City before Lob City.

Karl Malone's Pose Dunk

Malone's dunking impact still resonates in the NBA today.

His pose dunk has taken on a life of its own in some ways. So many players have replicated it in-game, from LeBron James to Gerald Green.

It's simple, really. Reach with the ball and place your other hand behind your head as if you're just relaxing and leaning back. For some reason, it comes off as graceful as pretty much any other slam, especially when you see it pulled off by a big man like Malone.

Tim Duncan's Bank Shot

Yes, this is the most boring signature move in this entire series. Of all five positions.

Don't even bother watching the above video. It's just a bunch of 12-to-16 foot bank shots. No one has any interest in seeing that. 

Here's the thing, though: They all go in. Every stinkin' one of them. And they go in, because the guy who's shooting them is almost certainly the best power forward who has ever picked up a basketball.

Tim Duncan is so notoriously boring that when he knocks over a plant, it's huge news, but he's also still (somehow) a phenomenal player at age 38. It's probably safe to say whatever Duncan is doing is working just fine.

Blake Griffin's Mozgov

You've got to feel for anyone whose name turns into a verb against his own will.

Timofey Mozgov, the world is on your side.

Griffin has his fair share of world-shattering dunks (ones on Kris Humphries, Kendrick Perkins, Pau Gasol [twice], Roy Hibbert, Danilo Gallinari and a Kia are certainly as nice or nicer), but the one on Mozgov was his first great one in the NBA, coming during his rookie year against a marquee team. Now, when someone gets slammed on, we say he got "Mozgoved." 

The above clip shows why.

Kevin McHale's Up and Under

Charles Barkley consistently says McHale was the best power forward he ever had to guard. I'm sure the up-and-under move was a massive part of that.

McHale had a bevy of moves he would use to his liking. With some of the quickest feet of any big man of all time, he could find pretty much any way to score around the block.

Moses Malone's Box out

OK, so maybe Tim Duncan's signature move isn't the most boring one on here. Cue: a series of box outs.

Malone's rebounding numbers, though, were absolutely astonishing, especially on the offensive glass. He averaged 5.1 offensive boards per game in his career. He had multiple seasons of 7.0 per game or more.

He did it so successfully because his feet were always moving. It was what helped him grab almost every available miss. Nimble feet allowed him to become one of the best at blocking out ever, and the numbers backed it up big time.

Robert Horry's Playoff Shots

We always say things like, "There will never be another Michael Jordan" or "There will never be another LeBron James." But that's not necessarily true.

At some point in the future, there probably will be another M.J. or LeBron. We just can't wrap our minds around that, because we haven't actually seen anyone dominate in their styles to such a degree. But it does feel safe saying we're never going to see another Robert Horry.

Horry has to be the luckiest athlete of all time. He averaged 7.0 points per game in his career, but matched the scoring with seven rings, totaled with the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets. 

Get this: Not only did he never miss the playoffs. He never even lost a first-round series. And it's not like he was just riding coattails come the postseason. Horry has made some of the biggest shots in NBA history.

Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.