Offseason Thread: Top 5 Duke Dunkers

[Oh no, not Petway!]

I know I am old but how about an honorable mention for David Henderson? I remember some extremely aggressive back-door dunks.

[DevilYouKnow]

Don't forget:

Kenny Dennard's reverse dunk (the first ever?)
Phil Henderson's dunk in Alonzo Mourning's face
Mason Plumlee
Elton Brand

But yeah, G. Hill and Zion should be on everyone's lists.

[johnb]

A different question would be most impactful dunks. Cassius Stanley or Magette were awesome, but did their dunks change crucial games, or even the entire Duke program?

(I realize this is mansplaining to many of you, so let me say my target audience is under 30).

Gene Banks’ dunks changed how Duke was seen by recruits, opponents, and writers; the dunks overlapped, perhaps, with his being Duke’s first elite Black recruit, but his physicality and Zion-like enthusiasm changed the program. The all around great play and occasional Johnny Dawkins dunk may have helped K keep his job (when JD was being recruited, he told his dad that his only concern was that Duke wasn’t very good; his dad’s response: if you go there, they’ll be great. With a dad like that, no wonder he became a coach—easily the best Duke player to then go into coaching). Well, I’d add David Henderson to Dawkins—a gritty player who drove the school bus to school, whose family stuffed newspapers in the cracks of their house to keep out the Carolina winter, whose principal had 2 photos in his office: has family and Henderson; and who attended a Nc high school that had never sent a student to Duke. He was told—as was Banks and later Carrawell and many others—that he didn’t belong at Duke, that he wasn’t a Duke guy. Each of of Henderson’s dunks was viciously tough, reflective of his toughness and grit, in contrast to the elegance of Dawkins, and he was instrumental—imho—in helping Duke recruit a bunch of guys who have been instrumental to the program.

The Phil Henderson dunk helped us get into the stratosphere—maybe the frailest-looking Duke player, ever, dominated the lane for a moment against frightening Georgetown, thereby ushering in a lengthy era in which teams were scared of us (though maybe Phil was punctuating the end of a mid 80’s toughness whose previous soldier was Billy King, most prominently when he dunked Mark Macon for 40 minutes). Grant Hill was an all around great player, but we could almost claim the ‘91 title after his head grazed the ceiling on that opening seconds dunk.

I’m more ambivalent about Zion’s dunks at Duke. No championships, of course, and his single biggest Duke moment was a broken shoe and gaping president. Were they merely entertaining, akin to Maggette’s and Stanley’s? Or did they change the program? And if they changed the program, did they do so in a positive way? Did he deepen or maintain the Duke brand as OAD Central, so that even possible 2nd rounders should go pro (in contrast to a bunch of other schools, where it’s fine to stay for a couple years if you aren’t a 1st round pick)? Well, to step off the churlish train for a moment, I’d put him in the pantheon because I have no problem grafting his NBA career onto his Duke legacy, and he’s going to have a bunch of memorable moments as an NBA icon; more than that, he brought the same sort of joyous surprise that accompanied the moments of the other guys.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I respect opinions to the contrary, and I know that they may not have been as "meaningful" as dunks by previous players, but not having Zion at the top of a list of Duke dunkers feels simply disingenuous.