Mark Jackson knows a few things about devastating dunks. The current Golden State Warriors coach was a victim of one of the all-time great in-your-face slams when he was a member of the New York Knicks. Unfortunately for Jackson, Tom Chambers was at his superhuman best back then, and Jackson made the mistake of trying to step in for a charge while Chambers barreled toward the hoop on a fast break.
The result was not pretty. After taking the full brunt of Chambers’ fury in his chops, Jackson is not easily impressed by run-of-the-mill dunks.
Not even Jackson could pretend not to be impressed with Harrison Barnes‘ dunk over Nikola Pekovic on Saturday, however.
Barnes, a rookie out of North Carolina, destroyed the Minnesota Timberwolves center with an early candidate for dunk of the year. Pekovic is no easy target, either — the guy suffered a painful sprained ankle two weeks ago and refused to use crutches, scoffing that his injury was “only pain.” But the work Barnes put on him Saturday might have hurt Pekovic even more.
Jackson still ranked Chambers’ flush higher on the list of greatest dunks ever, though.
“Well, it’s behind Tom Chambers over me,” Jackson said. “Harrison really showed his athletic ability and that’s going to be one he will remember for a long time to come.”
Check out Barnes’ dunk on Pekovic, as well as Chambers’ epic dunk on Jackson, in the videos below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7T_Wg5ilo8&w=640&h=480%5D
