Perhaps, Kobe Bryant is the only player in NBA history who could match Michael Jordan‘s competitive spirit. On the court, Jordan was a ruthless killing machine. Big man Dikembe Mutombo once taunted Jordan, reminding the Chicago Bulls star that he hadn’t dunked on him ever. Mutombo challenged MJ to posterize him with a dunk. Jordan being Jordan took the challenge to heart and soon dunked on the star player, emulating Mutombo’s famous finger wag as a form of celebration. 16 years after the dunk, Jordan revealed the experience to be ‘gratifying’.
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However, the Chicago Bulls legend doesn’t consider the dunk on Mutombo his most memorable one. It is his dunk on friend Patrick Ewing that Jordan considers his favorite dunk.
Michael Jordan admitted that dunking on Dikembe Mutombo was ‘gratifying’
In the docuseries, The Last Dance, Mutombo could be heard saying to MJ that the six-time NBA champion hadn’t got him in six years. Even Ewing, who was fixing his sock, agreed that Michael hadn’t dunked on Mutombo. Perhaps that’s when the Atlanta Hawks legend should have seen it coming. Challenging Jordan was the worst thing you can possibly do to yourself as a basketball player. Fast forward to May 13, 1997, Jordan finally dropped a poster dunk on him. However, MJ said that it was Scottie Pippen who dunked on Mutombo first.
“Couple of other big would probably be Mutombo with the fingers wag. He knew it was coming. He did it to everybody, did it in everybody’s building. I think me and Scottie got him back to back. Scottie got him first and then I got him. He couldn’t answer, he couldn’t say anything. But he blocked so many shots. If you are a shot blocker, that doesn’t bother you, just wait for the next opportunity which I am pretty sure, he got me back at some point in time, but to be able to do that to him, that was gratifying,” Jordan told NBA 2K in a 2013 interview.
Pippen dunking on Mutombo isn’t surprising. He was one of the most ferocious dunkers in the 90s era and had Ewing on one of the most disrespectful dunks in the league’s history. However, in the 1997 playoffs against the Hawks, Jordan passed the ball at baseline. He made the cut, got the ball again, and viciously dunked on Mutombo. And to top it all off, there was his finger wag.
Shaquille O’Neal said Jordan was one of the three players to ever dunk on him
MJ was called Air Jordan for a reason. With an astonishing vertical and relentless ferocity, the five-time league MVP was able to dunk on some of the most legendary big men of the league. Apart from Ewing and Mutombo, another legendary big man falling victim to MJ’s dunk was none other than Shaquille O’Neal. Recently, O’Neal said that he was proud that only three people had been able to dunk on him in his career. He said;
“I always take pride in saying that in 20 years, I only got dunked on 3 times. Derrick Coleman, Michael Jordan, and Tim Perry.“
Dunking on Shaq is in and of itself a big achievement for any player, be it Perry or Coleman. However, when it comes to Jordan, Shaq should not feel bad, because he was dunked on by Black Jesus himself.
