Forgotten Dunks: Part I

If a Bobcat dunks and no one is around to see it, did it really happen? This facial provided by the Charlotte Bobcats' Michael Kidd-Gilchrist leaves me seriously unsure. The Bobcats have lagged in the bottom of the NBA’s standings since their creation in 2004. Their most impressive season resulted in a seven seed and a first-round sweep.

 Not hard to believe seeing as how the organization’s best player sits in a luxury box, donning a suit. Their terrible on-court performance combined with the fact that they play in one of the league’s smallest media markets makes their highlights all the less relevant to the national audience. But seriously America, this video has fewer than 480,000 views.


To put that in perspective, Miley Cyrus calling out fans of other acts has gained about 5 times as many views. The Kidd-Gilchrist dunk was one of the best dunks of the previous NBA season yet nowhere did it receive the hype it deserved. Compare it to, say, the infamous Kobe dunk over the Nets:


The Kobe dunk garnered more than twice as many views as the MKG slam and they’re from the same source, posted about two weeks apart, I might add. It stands to reason that a highlight from a nationally televised game between two major-market teams involving the Mamba himself would attract more views than a game between two of the NBA’s worst teams (both from relatively small markets).

But not that many more.

For starters, Kobe’s dunk was mostly aesthetics. The number of people involved made it look like that much more insane of a jam. Looking closely, even with his running start, he did not get higher than either Gerald Wallace or Kris Humphries, they both just happened to swing their hands to the side of the ball. MGK, however, went up, over and practically through the six-foot eleven Greg Monroe.

Off a of drop step no less.

Greg Monroe hadn’t been so disrespected since the Golden State Warriors picked Ekpe Udoh over him. How the Pistons' defense allowed Kidd-Gilchrist in to the lane when he has the shooting ability of an eleven-year-old chess protégée is beyond me. But I can only thank them for their over rotation, because it gave the world one of the most underrated dunks in recent history. A dunk which deserves tantamount more views on YouTube.

So to answer the initial question: no, no it doesn’t.