Vinsanity: The Top 10 Greatest Dunks Of Vince Carter’s Career

“He’s wasted his talent.” “He’s soft.” “He doesn’t care.” Vince Carter has heard nearly every insult you could ever throw at a player. But none of that takes away from this: He is the greatest dunker this game has ever seen.

With the recent news that Suns coach Alvin Gentry was benching VC in favor of Jared Dudley, some are taking this as a sign that Carter’s career is pretty much over. But in Wednesday night’s loss against the Thunder, Carter went retro, scoring 28 points and giving us a nice baseline reverse. After that, I figured I would make a list similar to the one I did of Kobe Bryant. Here are the 10 greatest dunks of Vince Carter’s career (no dunk contest and no celebrity-game dunks).

10. College Alley-Oop

I almost stuck the Statue of Liberty dunk on Tim Duncan here. You know the one where TD nearly gets a sneaker to the face. But I couldn’t refuse this one. If you remember VC’s time at Chapel Hill, this play was a staple: inbounds pass along the baseline, just throw it up at the rim and Carter will go get it. This time, he went and got it with one hand, in between two defenders who sort of combined to give him the Tom Chambers push-up. Nasty.

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9. Facial On Mutombo

Before all of the injuries, the sweets, the gained weight, the playoff flameouts and the graduations, there was Vinsanity and insanity. They combined on this play. Michael Jordan dunked on Dikembe Mutombo before. But not like this. This was throw-you-out-in-the-middle-of-the-street-naked with just your sneakers and a box of Cheez-Its. This was a call to the stratosphere: I’m here.

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8. Double-Pump Reverse Alley-Oop

Late night SportsCenter. It’s around midnight and you just finished up eating and icing after hoopin’. Find the remote. Dial channel 49. A few plays in and your jaw drops. You grab the phone and dial up your boys: “Tell me you saw that! VC just s*** on the whole game…” It ain’t enough to just reverse the lob. He had to double-pump it. Showboating? It isn’t showboating if no one else can do it. VC was merely experimenting and discovering.

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7. Dunk Over Ben Wallace

Someone should ask Big Ben about this dunk. His reaction could be the key to discovering what I think is the case: that this might be the most underappreciated facial of all-time. Pause at liftoff: dude is nearly at the foul line. That’s absurd. That’s disgusting. That has to be one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen on a court. Then, he doesn’t just go over Wallace, he stretches up and around him. This is easily one of the most overlooked dunks ever. And it’s only number seven.

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6. Baseline Windmill Vs. The Clippers

How do you even think to dunk a ball like this? The Wright Brothers must’ve reprogrammed Carter’s mind because no one goes baseline, brings the ball down and then decides to bring it back up and slam it from the side. This was a perfect reverse layup setup. For anyone else that is, except for Vince Carter. The only thing that stinks about this play is that we never get stuff like this out of him anymore. It was like all of the fuel he had saved up inside of him for mind-boggling jams ran out by 2003. (dunk is at the :53 mark on the video)

The best is yet to come…

5. Spike Dunk Vs. The Clippers

Every once in a while, you get to see something so stupid, so obscene and so exciting that you want to throw up, contort your face, and then scream woooooo all at the same time. Sensory overload. This spiked alley-oop was the sensory overload dunk. That’s what I’m going to call it. It was surprising that the whole arena didn’t just explode after this.

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4. Alley-Oop Windmill At UNC

Before there was ever such a thing as Team Flight Brothers, catching a lob and windmilling it home, or doing anything of the sort, was fantasy. I remember watching the old Dr. Funk Nike commercials, especially the one where VC caught a lob and windmilled it. I put it right next to the Adidas commercial that had Kobe doing all types of alien-like dunks. I figured it was fake. Then, preseason happened and Carter did the unthinkable.

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3. Reverse Vs. Indiana

“Listen, man. You might be from NYC. But you’ve never seen this. I know you’ve never seen this.” One defender was matched up with him on the baseline, staring straight into his finisher. Another was waiting besides the hoop and still another was on the other side of the lane, watching but not fully committing. “All three of you are going to come try to cut me off. But I’m telling you right now, get out of the way. I mean it.” Once Carter started his move, all three of them got out of the way, all sat there and watched. There was nothing else they could do.

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2. Facial On Alonzo

They said it was over, that you lost your touch. They said you got soft or always were soft. They said you ran out on responsibility. And then you over there, they said you don’t have the fire anymore. They said you got sick and found fun in other things. They said you were finished. Everyone tried to say that the meeting was cancelled. We couldn’t reschedule either. We can’t get that high anymore. Time to remind them.

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1. Over Frederic Weis

Lord, please watch over Vince Carter. Bless his family and his friends. May they all live in peace. I’m begging you, take care of Vince for me. He didn’t mean to kill Frederic Weis.

What do you think is the best dunk of VC’s career?

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