Power Dunk Manifesto
Two weeks in.
At the end of our last Blog Train post on March 10th, we stated: “The Blog Train will be back up and running on Friday night, so we’ll catch you then. We love this game!”
Little did we know that less than 24 hours later, the game that we love would have the PAUSE button pressed down on it indefinitely due to the Coronavirus. And so, there will be no new NBA basketball for the foreseeable future.
The 2019-2020 NBA season did, however, present us with 134 days of NBA basketball and 971 total games. Despite our world careening off its axis, we remain as optimistic as possible, our innate and immovable disposition.
Of the 971 NBA games played, we have 478 game capsules featured on this site across 61 Blog Train posts. (A total of 52 weekday Blog Train posts means that we put in a 16-hour workday 52 times since the season began. Real job that pays the bills from 9am to 6:30pm, watch the NBA and blog from 7pm to 3am.)
If there is one thing that we have learned from the Blog Train over the last 5 months, it’s that power dunks are irrevocably our favorite part of watching NBA basketball. We love pretty much everything about the NBA — some have advocated that we are too nice and really do love everything — but the fact is, we are most fixated on power dunks.
There are 150+ power dunks currently on this blog. [Update: We are up to 300 now!] It is our mission — and we would love your help! — to rate all of the power dunks to complete our Comprehensive 2019-2020 NBA Power Dunk Index and to discern which are the best power dunks of the season.
So what is a power dunk?
To us, in its simplest form, a power dunk is when a player throws down a slam dunk with so much force (i.e. power) that the dunk can no longer be in the same classification as a regular dunk, therefore requiring us to consider and refer to it as a power dunk.
How exactly are we rating the power dunks?
Not all power dunks are equal, so we are rolling out a rating system that includes 5 Levels. (A zero through 10 scoring system is played out and should remain reserved for the dunk contest and Dave’s pizza reviews.)
The 5 Levels of Power Dunks
Level 1 - A lite amount of power. Barely a power dunk, but they made it.
Level 2 - Some power here but still not a lot.
Level 3 - Okay, now we have a solid amount of power. A tried and true power dunk.
Level 4 - Extreme power and usually with a ferocious attack on the rim.
Level 5 - An absolute stunning amount of colossal, ultimate and legendary power. (One per year.)
With the 5 Level rating system in place, we started rating power dunks with the ole eye test. It became apparent after a while that we needed a more congruent and accountable way to keep the ratings in line due to the variety of power dunks and the different elements of power involved.
The Seven Elements of a Power Dunk
How high did the player jump? (0.5 point)
How far back did the player pull back the ball? (1.0 point)
How much force was the basketball dunked with? (1.0 point)
How fierce was the attack on the rim? [Did the rim move? Did the goal shake?] — (1.0 point)
How difficult was the power dunk? [Did the player power dunk on top of somebody? Did they go through somebody?] — (0.5 point)
How did the power dunk sound? (0.5 point)
How was the reaction? (0.5 point)
To us, the most important elements of a power dunk are the Force, Attack on the Rim and How Far Back the player pulled the ball, so those three categories are weighted to be worth one full point while the other four elements are worth half a point, totaling a perfect 5.0 score and coinciding perfectly with The 5 Levels of a Power Dunk.
The goal is to rate every power dunk from the 2019-2020 NBA season. We plan to average everyone’s ratings to calculate the most accurate final score for each power dunk. Starting soon, we will be posting and tweeting out a cascade of power dunks daily to hopefully help brighten these hapless days without sports and to get as many ratings in as we can.
Feel free to join us! You can just use the eye test, rating the power dunks 1 through 5, if our seven element algorithm is too complex or if it’s just not for you. You might find that you have your own algorithm and preference of the elements. (And if you just want to watch some power dunks and not rate them, that is certainly okay, too.)
Stay safe out there, and let us know what you got.
TL;DR - Let’s rate some power dunks! 1 through 5.
Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | Round 8 | Round 9 | Round 10 | Round 11 | Round 12 | Round 13 | Round 14 | Round 15 | Round 16 | Round 17 | Round 18 | Round 19 | Round 20 | Round 21 | Round 22 | Round 23 | Round 24 | Round 25 | Round 26 | Round 27 | Round 28 | Round 29 | Round 30 | Round 31 | Round 32 | Round 33 | Round 34 | Round 35 | Round 36 | Round 37 | Round 38 | Round 39 | Round 40 | Round 41 | Round 42 | Round 43 | Round 44 | Round 45 | Round 46 | Round 47 | Round 48 | Round 49 | Round 50
We still love this game!