Michael Jordan had a stupendous hang time and vertical leap, which he used to great effect in dunk contests. One of these stands out in particular.
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There are quite a few players in NBA history who’ve earned perfect 50 scores in the dunk contest. The likes of Vince Carter, Aaron Gordon, Jason Richardson and Zach LaVine have practically only gotten perfect scores when they’ve tried.
Michael Jordan may not be a showman on the level of these contest dunkers, but he was no slouch. There’s a reason why MJ won 2 dunk contests in a row, especially the second one in a dunk-off with Dominique Wilkins.
MJ’s most famous contest dunk was obviously his attempt from the free throw line in 1988. But there’s another dunk that probably deserves more recognition than it gets from fans.
The dunk that only Michael Jordan has pulled off
Wilkins was one of the greatest dunkers of all time – in-game or otherwise. He probably deserved more perfect 50 scores than he got during his dunk contest career. He certainly deserved better scores from the judges for his final dunk in 1988.
But it’s very much doubtful that he could do anything as artistic or technically challenging as this Jordan dunk. Just take a look at it for your own benefit.
At first look, this dunk is pretty impressive as is. But its true difficulty is illustrated from the rim cam. Jordan goes up towards the rim straight up, but he contorts his body midway through the air to look at the rim parallelly to the backboard.
MJ’s head is practically at the height of the rim when he dunks the ball in, almost casually. The whole movement comes off in one fluid hop 40+ inches through the air.
