30 best NBA poster dunks of all time

28. Shawn Kemp over Alton Lister

In most circumstances, dunks off two feet are just more aesthetically appealing than those off one, but Shawn Kemp was one of the rare exceptions to the rule. A one-leg, one-arm windmill? Yuck. Oh, it’s Shawn Kemp dunking over Alton Lister? That changes EVERYTHING.

You could tell that when Kemp caught the ball at the top of the perimeter he had nothing but bad intentions on his mind, and after he threw down the dunk, it just got even more rude and disrespectful when he started pointing at Lister with both hands. Lister is beside himself as Kemp starts pointing at him and in the background all you can hear is, “YEEEAAAAAHHHHH BABY! INTO LISTER’S FACE.” I don’t know about you, but dunking into someone’s face seems a tad bit more disrespectful than dunking in someone’s face and I love it.

In the commentary over the replay, you can hear the play-by-play man say, “A lot of people would think, ‘Should that be a charging foul?’ No! There is a dead area under the basket where players are not supposed to be, and if the guy driving to the basket runs into him and knocks him down, that’s not considered a foul, because that is kind of a dead territory, and that’s what you see when Kemp hits Alton Lister.”

The irony about this is that wherever Lister landed immediately became the dead territory, and its fair to wonder if he’s ever left it after what Kemp did to him.