May 21, 2009 12:20 pm  |  46 Comments

The Most Destructive Dunks Of All-Time


by Lang Whitaker

Hopefully you saw Dwight Howard’s dunk last night in Cleveland that knocked a screw loose — literally — and brought down the shot clock and two cameras. Of course, if you’re a SLAM reader, you hopefully recalled that this wasn’t the most destructive Dwight dunk of all-time, only the most destructive caught on tape.

By bringing down the house last night, Dwight joined a long line of players who have done way more damage to rims and glass. Here’s a video with a ton of them put together….

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This story is filed under: NBA, SLAMTV

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  • Moose Posted: May.21 at 12:24 pm
    CHOCOLATE THUNDER!!!

  • overtime Posted: May.21 at 12:33 pm
    I just loved the camera angle…seeing it fall slowly…

  • Mendel Posted: May.21 at 12:34 pm
    The one where all the glass dumps on top of dude is the best one

  • Lang Whitaker Posted: May.21 at 12:38 pm
    Send it in, Jerome!

  • overtime Posted: May.21 at 12:54 pm
    wow…Mike sure did break a lot of backboards that all looked scarily alike over the same dude…

  • Allenp Posted: May.21 at 12:54 pm
    the jordan one was nasty.

  • Moped Ellis Posted: May.21 at 1:01 pm
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrmfMU7Udhw honorable mention: shaq @phx. darvin ham sighting!

  • K Posted: May.21 at 1:05 pm
    Where was that Jordan one from? What uniform was he wearing?

  • riggs Posted: May.21 at 1:10 pm
    @K: i think that was overseas if im not mistaken

  • thesubwayconnection Posted: May.21 at 1:24 pm
    Those who did it with one hand. . . That’s just sick. That’s a ton of force. And this has to be one of the weirdest feelings of all time. I remember when I was about 13-14 jumping off a bench with my friends just trying to dunk. I caught one, and hung on with two hands - then landed on my back. The rim just came right off. (The backboard was wooden, and probably old) We were so hyped, but everyone shut up. And the first words out of our coaches mouth were “Who’s going to pay for that?”

  • B. Long Posted: May.21 at 1:28 pm
    Was that MJ in the orange and black? WTF?

  • Mike Posted: May.21 at 1:32 pm
    the Jordan one was when he was on the nike team, they were travelling in europe at the time I believe, I’m not sure what year it was though, it may have been right after he got out of high school

  • Jeff Fox Posted: May.21 at 2:31 pm
    Maybe Shaq has a point about Howard being a cheap imitation of him.

  • PaoYeezy Posted: May.21 at 2:33 pm
    MJ in Italy vs Juve Trieste

  • pennydunk_1 Posted: May.21 at 2:35 pm
    The Jordan one was in an exhibition game in Spain, ‘86 I think

  • GotHandles? Posted: May.21 at 2:48 pm
    sweeeeeeet

  • ENDS Posted: May.21 at 3:40 pm
    ever since NBA Jam its every dunkers dream to tear down the rim. I saw the shaq ones as a kid and remember yelling for everyone in the house to come watch this kunk. The really messed up thing was Orlando was fighting Indianafor a Playoff spot in 93, not only did we win the game but also Nick Anderson scored 50 points and all anyone including myself could talk about the next day at school was the Shaq Attaq

  • rob stewart Posted: May.21 at 3:54 pm
    You could shatter the glass in the Sega Classic vidoe game titled Coach K!!!

  • K Posted: May.21 at 5:42 pm
    Damn, you guys were right, the Jordan dunk is legit and everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPc_JeJYDMQ

  • Double R Posted: May.21 at 6:04 pm
    For the dunk at :33, it looks like the backboard breaks as soon as the ball touches the rim

  • RV Posted: May.21 at 6:11 pm
    funny how the guy who was the most excited about it actually “cheated”, he dunked then stayed on the rim and pulled it down…..and who else can shatter the board and not ever be in any danger from the falling rim and falling glass, but MJ? Everyone took some glass but him..

  • Blinguo Posted: May.21 at 6:23 pm
    That Fox Sports channel SportScience show did a study with Amare going at the rim a hundred times or something like that. You can’t break the glass anymore with these new breakaway rims and hoop stanchions, but Dwight showed you could still break something last night.

  • Blinguo Posted: May.21 at 6:27 pm
    That Shaq in the practice gym landing on his back/head in the 1st minute was on (around) Amhad Rashad. They showed it and talked about it when he was on NBA TV post game Ahmad GP CWEBB show.

  • zabba Posted: May.21 at 6:36 pm
    Hate to point this out but basketball boards back then were no where near as sturdy as today’s. Having said that, that’s a glorious video to watch.

  • MeloMan13 Posted: May.21 at 6:49 pm
    OK, Mj is just greatness at its purest form. Everything about that dunk was perfection. Somehow he manages to float enough to completely miss the falling glass, and he makes the glass fall on the opposing players just to add insult to injury.

  • MeloMan13 Posted: May.21 at 6:50 pm
    and it looks like he left absolutely no glass on the backboard. just a clean frame

  • WhaHuh Posted: May.21 at 8:10 pm
    Whoa

  • Quail Posted: May.21 at 8:26 pm
    its so wierd to see the whole backboard just turn white in one split second. haha.

  • Gerard Himself Posted: May.21 at 10:30 pm
    I’m watching this during the halftime break between Game 2 of the Lakers-Nuggets series. Smart move by me.

  • Dacre Posted: May.21 at 10:51 pm
    the only time ever you would mention dwight howard in the same breath as robert tractor traylor

  • DMC14 Posted: May.22 at 1:02 am
    coudn’t you smash the bacboard in nba live 95 too.

  • DMC14 Posted: May.22 at 1:04 am
    i just read through the posts again but didnt see any other mention tractor traylor. what you talkin bout Dacre.

  • albie1kenobi Posted: May.22 at 1:17 am
    yeah there’s a tractor sighting there. you can’t miss him. dude is huge.
    also, for high school games with broken backboard, wtf do the school do? it’s near impossible to replace those baskets (those that are pulled/raised to the ceiling) without a construction crew coming in to fix it.

  • speedy Posted: May.22 at 2:11 am
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93e4CiLtfg0&feature=related

  • speedy Posted: May.22 at 2:16 am
    Michael’s dunk was the best.
    He let the backboard collapse over these three poor dudes and never got hit by a piece of glass.

  • davidR Posted: May.22 at 5:23 am
    damn, how can you walk under falling glass like that like it’s all good?

  • pendejo Posted: May.22 at 5:25 am
    Jerome Lane. Posterizes one dude and breaks the rim without hanging. Sick.

  • Lz - Cphfinest 3 Posted: May.22 at 5:51 am
    This I loved. Thank You Lang. The MJ one was amazing - never saw that one before. Perfect video. However I missed the Shaq one in Phoenix, where the whole stancion wobbles/collapses. If I remember correctly he catches an alley on that one.

  • Ian Posted: May.22 at 5:52 am
    I like how Kevin Love stares at the glass on the floor and nobody does nothin!

  • Babygab Posted: May.22 at 9:11 am
    Whoa K !
    I just saw the MJ video ! Did you see how he was moving ? Elegant like crazy man ! And efficient like no other. Man, Kobe, Lebron and all them other cats…. Nobody even comes close to that I’m sorry !

  • dr. thunder Posted: May.22 at 9:53 am
    i wish you could break the backbroad in NBA live video games!!!

  • Enigmatic Posted: May.22 at 12:53 pm
    Kevin Love looks sad when he broke the rim. Like he’s gonna get an a**-whoopin for it or something.

  • Jukai Posted: May.22 at 12:57 pm
    You guys are marvelling over the Jordan dunk… was that KEVIN LOVE at the end?

  • fhwoefwe Posted: May.22 at 7:30 pm
    Dude at 1.50 made it rain!!!

  • Heals Posted: May.22 at 9:39 pm
    Perfect track for mix like this…

  • weezy f. leezy Posted: May.23 at 5:14 pm
    no larry bird???

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