National Basketball Association

Definitive Dunks: The greatest dunks in Orlando Magic history

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Orlando Magic have had some great dunkers throughout their history. A mix of power and grace, the dunk has come to define some great moments for them.

Aaron Gordon holds a lot of promise for the Orlando Magic.

He was a bundle of potential even before the Slam Dunk Contest that pushed him to the forefront of the national conversation. The dunk contest got him in a national commercial for Nike (that aired during the Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies on NBC) and added confidence to his game after the All-Star Break.

The Magic expect big things from Gordon outside of dunking.

But dunking is what he will always be known for. The dunk, for all its simplicity, still holds a lot of power emotionally. The artistry, power and athleticism it takes to finish above the rim eludes most normal basketball players. It is the simplest, yet most satisfying act in basketball.

As kids, fans lower the basket and go up with two hands to stuff one home. Even in video games, pulling off a great dunk is oddly satisfying. They may mimic Gordon’s artistry and athleticism or Shaquille O’Neal’s power or Anfernee Hardaway’s grace or Tracy McGrady’s wizardry, they all have that one thing in common. The emotion of a game can change through this simple play.

The fascination with throwing the ball through the hoop rather than shooting it in.

NBA Jam was built on the power of the dunk and made it a strategy over everything else. Super athletes just amazed with their ability to finish around the rim. There is still nothing like a clear lane and someone willing to jump.

At FanSided earlier this week, Ian Levy brought together a panel that included former Slam Dunk champion Brent Barry, Phoenix Suns forward Marquese Chriss and several NBA writers including Jared Dubin of Hardwood Paroxysm and Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated to name the top 30 in-game dunks in NBA history. This list did not include Slam Dunk Contest dunks.

One Magic dunk did make the list. But it is not the one Magic fans likely would think. It is a dunk that probably would have been forgotten except for what this panel brought up.

With that in mind, I felt it was time to name the top-20 dunks in Magic history. It was time to create a list for the Magic by a Magic expert.

I am sure I will miss a few. If you have a dunk you would like to submit, please send a YouTube link to me on Twitter @omagicdaily or via e-mail at omagicdaily@gmail.com or in the comments below. This list can certainly expand and get reordered as submissions are made.

Hopefully this list gets the conversation started on the best in-game dunks in Magic history (at least through the 2016 season).

Favorite game winners of all time? pic.twitter.com/6MlPHx3gqT

— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) September 20, 2016

20. Penny shakes and bakes

No. 8 on a recent Orlando Magic list of best game winners, this gem of a dunk from Anfernee Hardaway’s rookie year it appears is truly special, displaying many of Hardaway’s amazing gifts. Hardaway puts a nice crossover on to create room and then drives to the basket easily for an effortless one-handed jam to beat the buzzer and win the game.

19. Dwight breaks things

On one of the very first possession of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, Dwight Howard broke the shot clock in Cleveland. No, he literally broke the shot clock in Cleveland. He dunked the ball so powerfully that the shot clock on top of the basket fell over, delaying the game. A preview of his dominance to come.

18. Shaq breaks things

Dwight Howard certainly knew how to follow Shaquille O’Neal’s footsteps. O’Neal was the first Magic player to break things, pulling down the backboard in Phoenix in an incredible display of power for the rookie — and on national TV. That would not be the only time he would do that. . . .

17. Vince Carter why not?

Vince Carter was not the superstar Vince Carter when he came to Orlando. That was just fine. Occasionally he did pull out some tricks. Including this seemingly ho-hum, why-not? 360 dunk on the fast break against the Memphis Grizzlies.

16. Air Gordon

Aaron Gordon is still seeking to establish himself as an all-around player in the league. But one thing he certainly can do is jump with the best of them. He proved that in his first home game with the team when he elevated over Bradley Beal for an emphatic jam. Then he did it all again during the Dunk Contest in Toronto.

15. Jameer Nelson’s Dunk

Jameer Nelson has one dunk in his NBA career. Just one. Maybe he has more. That does not matter. The maybe-6-foot point guard is not a dunker by any means. But in his second year in the league, he got one. And Steve Francis could not have been happier.

14. Dwight ices the Cavs

For those that do not believe Dwight Howard had any post moves, Game Six of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals should be Exhibit A to debunk that. And his jab step, spin move dunk over Anderson Varejao late in that game is even more evidence of an advanced post game. That dunk epitomized Howard’s dominance in the series and finished the Cavaliers off.

13. The bounce dunk

Sometimes a dunk is so strange and too much like a dunk contest it ticks people off. Steve Francis got the ball in a runout and opted to bounce the ball off the floor to himself and jam it in. Larry Brown was not happy. He picked up a technical foul and then the league banned the move, instructing refs to call it a travel from now on.

12. Finishing the steal

Everyone remembers Nick Anderson stealing the ball to set up the Magic’s game-winning dunk in Game One of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Chicago Bulls. No one really talks about the finish. No one except Horace Grant. Grant has said Anfernee Hardaway delivered the perfect bounce pass to him to set up the game-winning dunk. Grant himself had to make a great play to receive the ball in some traffic and go up with one hand over Toni Kukoc to secure the win.

11. With Malice Aforethought

This was the only dunk by a Magic player to make Fansided’s list of the top 30 in-game dunks of all time. Perhaps I am valuing impact too much in creating a Magic team-specific rankings. But this dunk is not even McGrady’s top dunk on this list (let alone in the top-10). It is a ferocious dunk though from McGrady, displaying his power. But is nowhere near as memorable as some other dunks coming later on.

10. Surprises

Some of the best dunks are the best surprises.

Pat Garrity’s dunk total is probably in the single digits for his career. He is still one of the most beloved players in Magic history — every team has their favorite role players — and it was not for his athleticism or dunking.

That is why Pat Garrity’s 2006 dunk over Samuel Dalembert is still one of the great deep cut highlights in Magic history. If you were not there to see it (and it was shocking and buzz worthy when it happened at the TD Waterhouse Centre) or if you did not follow the team then, you probably forget this happened.

Garrity was a fantastic 3-point shooter. That was almost exclusively his role throughout Magic history. So when he put the ball on the floor, it was usually a bad sign. As he drove on a great shot blocker like Samuel Dalembert, things only got worse.

Yet Garrity took off and dunked over the shot blocker. It is still amazing to type that sentence it was so unexpected. And Garrity unfurled a pretty gnarly poster on top of that.

Even Garrity seemed shocked running to the other end of the floor.

9. Cut to the chase

LeBron James was a terror in 2009. He dominated the entire season in winning the MVP award. During the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, James delivered the highlight of the Playoffs in Game Two and he flat-out dominated the series. As good as the Magic were that series, they had no answer for LeBron James.

Courtney Lee though twice exemplified what James was doing this entire series — desperately chasing.

LeBron James’ chase-down blocks are legendary. He has this innate timing to catch a player from behind and block their layup or dunk attempt without them knowing he is there and without fouling. James is probably one of the best in the league.

Twice in this series a rookie got the better of him. It is as much a part of the Orlando Magic affection for Lee that still exists.

Lee beat James to the basket and finished with the pressure all over him from behind. That belies the relative simplicity of the dunk itself. It was a heady and difficult play for the rookie. Especially in a tight Playoff game.

Lee had a lot of moments like that throughout that series.

8. Mr. 360

Victor Oladipo threw down some pretty epic dunks during his time with the Orlando Magic — even outside his Slam Dunk Contest.

He was not the first player to pull off a 360 in game for the Magic — Vince Carter gave a wink and a nod before reaching into his bag of tricks for a 360 against the Memphis Grizzlies in 2010. But Oladipo doing it, in his second game of his career no less, was much more impressive.

Magic fans knew Oladipo was athletic. But nobody saw him with that kind of athleticism. And so willing to display it so early on.

Here is what I wrote about that dunk back in 2013:

The air rose a bit in Amway Center in anticipation of what was to come. How would the rookie respond? What would the rookie do in this situation? A sure two points could turn into a highlight prety quickly. Doubly quickly when it comes to Victor Oladipo.

If one play can describe where the Magic were last year to where they are now after a 107-86 win over the Nets on Sunday, maybe 180 degrees is going a bit too far. Oladipo’s 360-degree, break-away dunk though sure had the 15,000-plus at Amway Center feeling good about the direction this team is heading, as if the final score would not. It certainly sent the Magic’s stadium buzzing in a way it has had few occasions to do in a tumultuous three years since it opened.

Oladipo was everything on this play. He forced the steal on the perimeter, raced to the other end and easily spun for the jam. Never mind that it was a blowout win for the Magic. It was a big one. One where hope still lived for that 2014 team and for the rebuild at large.

Oladipo instilled that hope.

Oladipo would turn around and do it again a year later to clinch a win against the Houston Rockets. It was equally impressive. But not as impactful — despite the emotional weight of defeating Dwight Howard at Amway Center for the first time.

7. Hot Potato

Tobias Harris’ game-winning dunk against the Oklahoma City Thunder was not the most complex dunk. Considering the time and situation for a young Magic team — not to mention Kyle O’Quinn’s reaction — it was an incredible difficult and emotional dunk.

The Magic were in the second year of their rebuild. There was still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the team. The Oklahoma City Thunder were the big team in the league. This was a marquee win. A win that would show the team had some promise and hope.

The way it all went down was simply incredible.

It started with Kevin Durant missing a jumper that would have given Oklahoma City the win. It then continued with Victor Oladipo beating a Thunder player to the rebound to ignite the break. Oladipo had a two-on-one and gave the ball to Maurice Harkless.

Harkless got caught too deep and quickly passed it to Tobias Harris trailing the play (fortunately). Harris jammed the ball in traffic with time expiring. In fact, time had expired.

It is the kind of highlight that will get replayed over and over again in Magic history.

6. The Stretch

Dwight Howard was a true athletic freak for a player standing at 6-foot-10. There really are not many players his size who could legitimately compete in a slam dunk contest, let alone win one.

And it was dunks like the one he put against the Boston Celtics that showed the full range of his athleticism.

Just a few possessions before, he finished an alley-oop with a jam over his head. That was the appetizer.

On fast break, Howard finished an incredible transition alley-oop that showed just the depths of his leaping ability and athleticism. Even if Jameer Nelson throws the ball way behind Howard, he could finish it.

Brian Hill perhaps put it best to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel:

“If it wasn’t Dwight on the receiving end, it probably would have been a turnover,” Magic Coach Brian Hill said. “That ball was about four feet behind him. That was a very, very special play by a heck of an athlete.”

The fact Howard dunked over DeShawn Stevenson is equally hilarious and incredible. It was one of the amazing dunks Howard performed while in a Magic uniform.

A true sign of his athleticism and potential. The Magic were still a year away from the Playoffs, but this was a sure sign Howard was something special. At least something to watch ever night.

5. Off the backboard

It is rare when a play prompts a rule change. Or even rarer when a trick only reserved for All-Star Games shows up in a regular season game.

Tracy McGrady’s artistry though was always with him.

McGrady first went off the backboard in the 2002 All-Star Game. That was his breakout performance on the All-Star stage. He scored 20-plus points and his two throws off the backboard were the highlights of that game.

We are not counting All-Star Game dunks in this list. So he brought one of those All-Star Game quality dunks to a regular season game.

It is not that nobody saw McGrady do this. It is just that he was brazen enough to do it in the middle of a game. An important one too with the Magic ending the season as the eighth seed. The game against the Toronto Raptors was an April game at that.

And McGrady even called his shot, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

McGrady sprung this gem of a dunk out of nowhere. It would have awed a crowd anywhere. And then it got copied endlessly — on driveways, in commercials and by his cousin.

That certainly shows the impact of his dunk. Yet, only McGrady could seemingly pull this off in a game. The coordination, timing, athleticism and foresight to pull this off in a game. That was McGrady at his most dangerous and exciting.

Defenses knowing he could unleash this kind of a highlight at any moment? It had to be terrifying. Along with his other offensive abilities that made him the best offensive player in Magic history.

4. Holding the throne

Tracy McGrady was at the height of his powers when the King, then a high school student, settled into his seat at the Palace of Auburn Hills for Game One of a ho-hum one-vs.-eight first round game.

McGrady could singlehandedly drag an undermanned Magic team into the Playoffs and win games. He was the standard bearer for great scorers, dropping 30 points per game with ease.

This was his league — even if he did not have the team to get him a ring or much Playoff glory. LeBron James would have to wait and be a fan this day.

And McGrady put on a show — scoring 43 points — capitalized with a massive jam over 7-footer Memo Okur.

This play showed everything that made McGrady special. McGrady’s length was impossible to defend, he could have just risen up and shot over that defender without a thought. His quickness got him by the smaller defender. His athleticism got him up near the rim. And again his size just allowed him to finish over the late shot blocker.

McGrady had it all. The defense was his play thing. And it was not until the Pistons matched his length with rookie Tayshaun Prince and the Pistons’ defensive style and the Magic’s shortcomings took everything away.

This was the quintessential T-Mac dunk. Raw power and grace in one play. It was the kind of dunk you stood for. It made LeBron stand for sure. This was his welcome to the league moment in some ways. This is the guy James would have to over take.

And in one moment the Magic were the rulers of the world. They went up 3-1 in the series behind McGrady’s brilliance. But he could not do it by himself and the Pistons’ dynasty began with that Playoff series.

3. Superman

Dwight Howard would not pick up the Superman moniker for another two years when he appeared at the Slam Dunk contest. At this point, Howard was a third-year player still looking to make a name for himself in the league.

Howard then was raw athleticism. The instructions for him were simple, be near the basket, defend and clean up misses. Howard’s post game was very rudimentary and the Magic were playing him while still developing him slowly.

But the Magic were beginning to expect more from him. He made his first All Star team. And the Magic were relevant for the first time in his career.

All the potential he had that season as the Magic made the Playoffs for the first time since Tracy McGrady’s departure. And no win was more monumental for Howard and the Magic than this February win over the vaunted San Antonio Spurs.

It was a sign the team was for real. And the way it happened was simply astonishing.

With 0.8 seconds left, Hedo Turkoglu inbounded the ball and found Dwight Howard high above the rim to put it down and dunk the game winner. It was everything that made Dwight Howard great in so many ways.

And it was a moment of pure euphoria for the team. A preview of the dunking to come from Howard later on that month.

2. Penny announces himself

It became clear very quickly the Orlando Magic had something special in Anfernee Hardaway. As Pat Williams said as fans drowned him in boos for trading Chris Webber for this relatively unknown big guard from Memphis State, those boos turned to cheers pretty quickly.

Hardaway’s special skills as an athlete with point guard abilities drew comparisons to Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. And they were well deserved.

Nothing quite cemented what this kid could do like his iconic dunk on Patrick Ewing.

Here was a second-year player taking on one of the fiercest defenders in the league and scaling that mountain with incredible ease. If Hardaway needed a play to establish himself among the league’s elite, this was that play.

This was a play that told the New York Knicks early in the 1995 season their vice-like grip on the Atlantic Division was not only slipping, but it was gone.

The Magic won the game easily with Hardaway scoring 33 points and eight assists, one of those assists came as Hardaway was falling out of bounds flinging the ball over his shoulder to a streaking Anthony Bowie for a dunk.

Hardaway though put the exclamation point on this game and this win. And got the Magic’s December going toward a NBA Finals trip.

1. Shaq breaks the glass

For the longest time, Shaquille O’Neal’s official logo was his image hanging on the rim both feet off the ground. It was a symbol of his power and grace. Everything O’Neal was in his four years in Orlando.

The image that cemented O’Neal’s presence in the NBA was this game toward the end of his rookie year.

In a game against the New Jersey Nets, O’Neal brought down the backboard. And brought it down in a violent, surprising way.

”It really came crashing down,” O’Neal told the Orlando Sentinel at the time. ”It hurt a little bit, but not that much. I have a hard head. It could have been serious, but it wasn’t.”

He dribbled into the lane, rose up with two hands and just crushed the goal. It landed on top of him in what was surely a surprise to him. Even if O’Neal later claimed he meant to bring the goal down.

This was not the first basket he broke that season — he did it in Phoenix too. But this one was truly transformative. It was raw power and aggression. The sure sign of Shaq and his power (and not in the playful way he broke a rim against Ahamad Rashad in a famous NBA Inside Stuff clip).

The NBA began requiring arenas have spare baskets just in case. They redesigned the basket to ensure they could withstand O’Neal’s power.

There is no dunk by a player in a Magic uniform that is more iconic or more well known than this display of pure power. It was so powerful, no one remembers Nick Anderson scored 50 points in the same game.

Like our list? Hate our list? Let us know what you think about the definitive dunks in Magic history by leaving a comment below or interacting with us on Twitter @omagicdaily! Happy Dunking!