HOW TO SLAM DUNK
The slam dunk or just the "dunk", was made famous in the 70's, by the legendary Julius "Dr. J" Erving. Actually, there were many other players who could dunk before him, but in those days it was almost considered as a way of insulting your opponent, so nobody dared to do it. The dunk started developing in the other professional basketball-league, ABA, where Erving played for five seasons. When the ABA was closed down in 1976, Erving signed on for the NBA-team Philadelphia 76'ers and brought the dunk with him to the NBA. The dunk became more and more accepted over the years and finally very popular among the spectators. Nowadays the dunk is also an important way to give your team a boost of confidence, to make the opponents respect you or just to show off.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO SLAM DUNK
There are very many ways to dunk and it's almost only your imagination that can be the limit. New ways are invented all the time, for instance nobody thought it was possible to do the dunk Vince Carter did in the Olympics (I will come back to that later). Well, here are some of the most famous ways:
The most common dunk is the two-handed slam and it can be varied in to eternity. Actually, it couldn't be called a sort of dunk, just because it's so many ways to perform it.
The 360 slam is a difficult and famous dunk, requiring a very good vertical leap. When a player does the 360 slam he goes up as usual, spins 360 degrees in the air and then slams the ball into the basket (see picture 1).
The reverse slam is just the same as an ordinary one- or two-handed dunk - with one little difference: The player is dunking with his back against the basket.
When performing a windmill slam, a player goes up for an ordinary slam, brings the ball in a circle just as shown in picture 2 and slams the ball powerfully into the basket. To perform an alley'oop slam you have to use a team-mate. The team-mate passes the ball towards the basket and then the dunker jumps up, catches the ball in the air and slams it before he touches the ground again. These are some of the basic dunks. There are a lot of different moves and things to do and they can be combined with the basic dunks.
 
FAMOUS DUNKERS
During the NBA history, many dunkers have performed, but there are some players that have become a part of it (a part of the history, of course). Except the earlier mentioned Julius Erving, these are the most well-known ones:
Michael Jordan, or "Air Jordan" himself, is an extraordinary good ambassador for the sport basketball. If you ask a man on the street about the name of a basketball-player, and if he doesn't know a lot about basketball, he will guaranteed answer Michael Jordan. Despite he's not longer active, Jordan is still the most famous player, and also one of the richest ones (his contract with Nike was extremely lucrative, that's for sure). He had an incredibly good vertical leap, something that makes it hard to pick one dunk of him to write about, but the most famous one must be the dunk in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest 1987. He took a run from the defensive baseline and ran with the ball bouncing towards the opposite basket. When he came to the free throw line (about 4 meters from the basket) he took off and flew through the air. He slammed the ball powerfully and of course he won the contest.
Spud Webb, won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1986 and beat a player like Dominique Wilkins. Well, you say, that's good but it doesn't make him a legend. The thing is, Spud Webb is just 160 centimetres tall! He had an extremely good vertical leap (about 110 centimetres), but he was also a good basketball-player in other ways.
Vince Carter, sometimes called "Air Junior" (because of his similarities with Jordan), is the best dunker nowadays. In the Slam Dunk Contest 2000 he caught an alley'oop-pass from his cousin Tracy McGrady (That year they were allowed to use a team-mate in the contest) brought the ball down between his legs, brought it up again and slammed it. Another incredible Carter-dunk, by some people even called the greatest dunk of all time, was the one he did in the Olympic games in Sydney. It was in the semi-final against France, when Carter (playing for team USA, of course) stole the ball by interrupting a pass from a French player. He dribbled the ball against the attacking basket where the 214 centimetres tall Frederic Weis stood and defended it. When he was about one or two meters from Weis he didn't try to dribble around him, instead he took off, jumped over him and dunked (keep in mind that Weis was 214 centimetres tall!).
Courtesy "Robert Andersson, 9B, Engelbrektsskolan"
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