I love ranking things: musicians, foods, albums, dog breeds. You name it. I’ve spent hours arguing over lists that are inconsequential to most, yet still cause heated debates. That’s part of the buzz of being a sports fan. It’s also why most fans spend way too much time poring over player stats and playing fantasy sports; we like to know exactly where our favorite players rank amongst their peers in both a contemporary and historical context. In a world that is increasingly difficult to make sense of, we will always have sports, something in which we can generally make fairly solid conclusions.
That beautiful intro aside, I’ll be honest, one single event triggered the idea for this column: Dwyane Wade’s ridiculous posterization (Not a word, Microsoft Word? Well it is now!) of Anderson Varejo, which of course led to me watching the clip another 592 times. I’d say around 237 views in, I began to wonder just how high the dunk ranked in terms of Wade’s all-time best.
:::light bulbs goes off:::
Perfect, now I had an excuse to watch way too many Dwyane Wade youtube mixes, as well as finally put together a concrete list of Wade’s very best jams, something that I'd done in my head countless times. I soon found out that the task was a lot more arduous than I had anticipated. I mean, almost all of these dunks were "Plays of the Week" on NBA.com, and that's not even considering the dunks that didn't make my list. All that being said, I feel pretty confident with the order of everything as well as there not being any real glaring omissions.
A couple of notes: Obviously, I’m not picking an ideal time to write this since I’m sure there will be at least a couple of dunks over the rest of the year that will certainly merit consideration for a spot on this awesome list. That’s fine; I’ll make any changes at the end of the season.
To make things even more challenging for myself, I’m also including Olympic dunks. That’s part of the reason why this list started out as a top 10, but is now a top 15. Not that I’m apologizing, I highly doubt you’ll mind seeing a few extra dunks. All that aside, let the madness commence. And of course, feel free to leave your angry/congratulatory comments below.
15. Wade dunks on Portland
I remember watching this one live and it happened in a game in which the Heat were playing catch up for most of the second half. This was Wade taking his frustration out on the rim (and three Portland players in the process). I hate to nitpick, but if you’re wondering why this isn’t higher, it’s because I felt that none of the Blazer players had ideal position to really contest the dunk. But then again maybe that's because the THREE of them got in each other's way.
14. On Nocioni
Let me preface this one by saying that I don’t like Nocioni. Ever since his first year in the league when I remember him flagrant fouling Wade after a jump shot. And then Haslem consequently decking him into the second row (Ah, memories). I say all this just so you get an idea of how sweet it was to watch Wade punk him.
13. On the Arrogant One
Let me also preface this one by saying that I really don’t like Josh Smith. At all. I’ve always found him to be just a little bit too cocky, call it the Jason Terry syndrome, if you will. Any Heat fan who saw his failed between the legs dunk attempt in last year’s first round series knows exactly the type of shenanigans I’m talking about. Always nice to see him put in his place.
12. Yet another seven-foot victim
Poor Dan Gadzuric; my guess is there aren’t too many 6’4’’ shooting guards in the Netherlands who could have prepared him for this.
11. On Kaman
It’s pretty much an accepted fact in South Florida that it was former GM Randy Pfund, who pushed for Riley to draft Wade. Had it been solely up to Riley, many people in the know believe Riley would have taken Kamen. Let’s call this “reason number 1,483” why the Heat made the right decision.
To see the Top 10, click on this link http://www.examiner.com/x-8479-Miami-Heat-Examiner~y2009m11d15-Top-15-dunks-of-Wades-career-The-Definitive-List-Part-2
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