Watch the NBA’s 9 best dunks, and vote for the top one

Last season gave us what felt like a two-horse race for the NBA’s dunk of the year.

In one corner, there was Anthony Edwards baptizing Yuta Watanabe with a baseline dunk that saw the then rookie completely overpower the 6’9 forward in the air. In the other corner was Miles Bridges cocking the ball back as far as possible for a tomahawk dunk on Clint Capela moments after Capela had blocked his teammate at the rim. We asked readers which dunk they thought was better, and Bridges won 54 percent of the vote.

This year’s dunk of the year race doesn’t feel like it has any overwhelming favorites. Instead, we think there’s at least nine dunks that could take the crown. With the regular season over, let’s look back at the best dunks of the 2021-2022 campaign. You can vote on your favorite dunk of this season below.

We know Aaron Gordon is one of the best dunkers in the game, and this one is particularly impressive. The coordination it takes to catch the ball in the air while running at full speed and still have the wherewithal to turn and dunk it is pretty ridiculous. This isn’t a poster, but it’s a pretty amazing play.

I remember thinking I’d never see an under-the-legs dunk in a real game when LeBron did it back in high school. Now we have 7-footers like Jaxson Hayes doing it in transition, and Obi Toppin doing it twice in one season. Sheesh.

My favorite of these is the one from Jaxson Hayes, but all of them are wonderful.

Here’s a hot take for you: with apologies to Giannis, Anthony Edwards is the best pure athlete in the NBA. The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft is a freight train going to the rim, and he proved it again with this dunk on Gabe Vincent.

Jaylen Brown had several great dunks this year, but this was our favorite. You know you did something fantastic when Kevin Garnett gets out of his front row seat to dap you up.

LeBron obviously had another great individual year in the face of a dumpster fire Lakers season, but raise your hand if you didn’t know he could still get up like that. In addition to turning back the clock to slam on his former Cleveland teammate, LeBron roasted Love after the game. Unfortunately for Bronald Sr., this is as good as it got for the Lakers this season.

Kuzma quietly had an excellent year in his first season away from the Lakers. Joel Embiid might be the biggest, baddest shot blocker alive, and Kuzma went up and dropped one on his head. This dunk was so good that Embiid decided not to jump with him later in the game.

The Lakers’ big Russell Westbrook experiment was an explosive failure, but Russ still had a few vintage moments over the course of a lost year. None of them were better than this dunk on the three-time DPOY. Russ probably wants to ‘Men in Black’ this entire season, but this dunk was a keeper.

My favorite part about this dunk is Okoro trying to figure out who to stare down once he landed. When you dunk on three guys, there’s no easy answer!

Poeltl had a case as the best rim protector in the NBA this season, but don’t tell that to Ja Morant. Maybe the most amazing thing about this dunk is that it wasn’t even Morant’s best play of the quarter. We still have no idea how he got off this buzzer-beater minutes later.

Let us know in the comments as well.