Most of the time when someone misses a dunk, it ends up on the end of the season blooper real. But Memphis Grizzlies rookie Ja Morant is not like most players. With his athleticism and creativity, he's already proven this season that he's an innovator, and early on Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he managed to nearly throw down that was more worthy of the highlight reel than some made slams this season.
Midway through the first quarter, Morant picked up a loose ball at the top of the key and exploded into the open space in front of him. As he prepared to launch himself towards the basket, Kevin Love stepped in to try and draw a charge. But instead of Euro-stepping or spinning around him, Morant decided to just jump over Love. No, seriously, he took off from well outside the charge circle and nearly cleared the veteran big man.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to complete the dunk in the process, but it was still a stunning feat of athleticism. There really isn't a ranking for this sort of thing, but if there was, Morant's effort would easily be near the top of the list for best missed dunks of all time. Just check out the picture of his attempt. It might be even more impressive than the video.
In large part because Morant didn't actually complete the dunk, Love was able to have fun with it after the game. Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "Ja almost ended my professional career with this dunk...that kid is something special." Hard to argue with that analysis.
The obvious comparison here is Vince Carter's dunk over Frederic Weis in the 2000 Olympics, a.k.a. "le dunk de la mort" or, "the dunk of death." And now that we're talking about it, let's go back and have another look.
Goodness.
Carter's dunk was at the Olympics, and over a 7-footer, so it's going to be awfully tough for anyone to ever throw down a better slam, but if Morant could have gotten his to go, it would have been right up there.