30 best NBA poster dunks of all time

22. Michael Jordan over Patrick Ewing

Michael Jordan did so much over the course of his career to pick a single defining moment. Game 6 is 1998 is a nice place to start, but you really can’t discount his dunk over Patrick Ewing in the 1991 postseason. He was finally turning the corner and on the road to his first of six titles, and he wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of what he desperately wanted.

He catches on the wing, turns the corner on John Starks and runs into Charles Oakley. He changes direction, ostensibly heading back to the perimeter, and at the last second he turns back toward the rim, catching both Starks and Oak completely off guard. Ewing is there, and almost as if he’s annoyed that the Knicks are actually going to make him work for the bucket, he releases nearly seven years of frustration on the top of Ewing’s head.

Jordan had such a tight space to work with between Oak and the baseline, and his ability to collect the strength to elevate after tight-roping the baseline is as impressive as anything he’s done in his career. The Bulls would sweep the Knicks in the series and only lose two games in the entire postseason. This play set the tone for Chicago’s first title run and essentially the tone for the rest of Jordan’s career.