Top 10 power dunks of the 2021-22 NBA season

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1498480998761132033?s=20

1a. Ja Morant — Feb. 28, 2022

The allure of almost landing the big one had been there. Ja Morant was very close to putting both Anthony Davis and Kevin Love on all-time posters, but those dunks didn’t go down. However, on February 28, 2022, Ja finally landed the big one.

Ja catches the pass at half court and skirts quickly past Josh Primo, leaving Jakob Poeltl as the only thing between Ja and the hoop. (Keita Bates-Diop is sort of there, but he didn’t really want any part of it and Ja doesn’t even acknowledge him.)

One dribble into gathering the ball and Ja is already rising up from practically outside the paint. Poeltl tries to go up, but Ja has a thousand upper hands on him, knocking Poeltl backward while cocking the ball ALL the way back for total detonation. He’s still soaring up as he begins twisting to throw the ferocious hammer down with the fury of Thor himself.

The dunk is an explosion that IGNITES the crowd into an all-out frenzy. Announcer Pete Pranica loses his mind. “Ohhhhh!!! HOLY COW! That is unbelievable!!” Ja is as unfazed as he is reticent. He just looks around at the wake of his destruction. He’s already ready for the next one.

The fans are ecstatic as they are incredulous. Molly Morrison’s dad puts his hands behind his head and has to turn all the way around, he can’t look at the horrific scene of the car crash for another second. The Grizzlies bench is all over the place. Somebody is repeatedly jumping up and down while some guys have spilled into the floor. They hold each other back and cackle like they have never cackled before.

The replay is the first time that we hear Brevin Knight who was rendered speechless as it happened live. He says, “Oh my gosh,” through gritted teeth. Then he laughs like a giddy owl. “Hoo hoo hoo!!” Then Knight says, “Look at this, PARTNER!” and he puts himself in Ja Morant’s shoes, “‘Take an elbow sandwich as I get to the rim.’”

And Pete Pranica closes it out: “As the kids say: ‘He caught a body.’”

Not only did he catch a body, but Ja would go on to score a career-high and franchise-record 52 points that night, including an astonishing buzzer-beating alley-oop shot before halftime from a Steven Adams full-court pass, happening only a couple of minutes after this dunk from which the crowd was still buzzing.

That’s when we had to declare: The Legend of Ja Morant doesn’t just grow by the day. The Legend of Ja Morant grows by the quarter.