Magic Johnson Hails All-Star As Best In-Game Dunker Ever

Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards may have made his first All-Star team last season, but 2023-24 appears to be his coming-out moment. The 22-year-old out of Georgia’s supremely lethal athleticism has made him a two-way superstar already, while he’s propelled his Minnesota club to a 47-22 record so far and the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed, although the team is just one game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.

He has become one of the NBA’s most awesome in-game dunkers to behold. Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Fame point guard Magic Johnson, who’s seen plenty of great in-game dunkers in person (as he mentions), weighed in after Edwards massacred Utah Jazz power forward John Collins with a propulsive slam. Johnson had quite the hot take, a rarity for his presence on X:

On his eponymous show The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons unpacked the statement. “It got me down this rabbit hole of trying to figure out who my best in-game dunkers of all time were,” Simmons said. “Honorable [mentions]: David Thompson, who was kind of the first great in-game dunker… He was only 6’3″, 6’4″, but could go up and over people. Darryl Dawkins, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen, Jason Richardson, LeBron, Wade, Kobe. I’d put Wemby [Victor Wembanyama] in there. Edwards is now in the conversation but I would not put him in the all-time list… And I don’t think [Michael] Jordan makes my five. I’m afraid I’m going to get hit by a lightning bolt, but Jordan doesn’t make it. Jordan had some great in-game dunks… But what made Jordan great was how he operated in the air and levitated and bought that extra time.”

“My five guys, going backwards: Shawn Kemp, No. 5… He was the first 6’10” guy who seemed like he was going out of his way to dunk on people, he had the alley-oops,” Simmons said. “Dr. J [Julius Irving], I can’t believe he’s fourth on my list. Dr. J had some classics… I can only judge from what we saw when we got to the NBA… Vince Carter [is No. 3]. some people would have Vince Carter first… Vince had that run, really [the] first four years of his career… No. 2 is Blake Griffin, who now has been forgotten as really the first great Twitter dunker… His first couple Lob City years… it was out of control, he jumped so high… Blake Griffin was a real problem, people were terrified to be posterized by him.”

“No. 1 is Dominique Wilkins,” Simmons concluded. “This is one of those things [where] I won’t entertain arguments about it. He dunked on everybody. I remember doing a podcast with him for Grantland, it was one of the first things I wanted to talk to him about. Dominique loved dunking on people so much that it was almost like, when he was in the air, he would have reached over and grabbed somebody to put underneath him so he could dunk on them.”