Marko Milic
You probably do not know this one, but Marko Milic is the first person to ever be recorded dunking over a vehicle. Back in 1995, Millic was in a European dunk contest in which he dunked over a convertible coupe as a 16-year old. That video is still on YouTube for those interested. Millic was drafted in 1996 by the Phoenix Suns and also spent a season with the 76ers before heading overseas.
Paul McPherson
Paul McPherson is definitely in the top five dunkers in history that you have never heard of. You might renember McPherson from Nike’s 2003 battlecourt competition which was a one-on-one tournament of the best players in the world. McPherson finished in second place in that competition. Something that competition did not show was, his ability to jump and dunk with the best of them. McPherson played D1 in college and then spent some time playing overseas. There isn’t alot of footage of him out there, but of the footage that is available, you can see just how much of a crazy dunker he was. McPherson has also been mentioned in “greatest streetball dunks ever” where he dunked a put back miss in which the ball was all the way down to his ankles.
Abdoul Bamba
We apologize for the grainy image, but the only images that were available of Bamba are screenshots of old Slam Nation dunk videos. We couldn’t find any good images at all of him. Bamba is the very first guy to ever 360 between-the-legs dunk on tape. That dunk is still on YouTube if you are interested in seeing it. Bamba is widely recognized as the inventor of using a cartwheel during dunking. Bamba became famous after touring with the French slam dunk squad “Slam Nation” in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Luckily, Slam Nation documented a lot of their performances, and there are many videos of Bamba dunking online.
Kris Bruton
Bruton won the NCAA dunk contest in 1994 (actually he completed cooked the competition in that dunk contest) before getting drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round. Bruton spent a whole career overseas and then joined the Harlem Globetrotters. While in the Bahamas in 2001 on a Globetrotters tour, Bruton was said to break the official 12-foot dunking record (set by Michael Wilson who is also on this list) by dunking on a hoop that measured 12 feet 1 inch. The judges of the event, labeled the dunk as “illegal” and the dunk never officially broke the 12-foot dunk record. Even in his late forties, Bruton is still logging minutes with the Globetrotters today.
Lester Earl
If you were a teenager or college basketball fan in the 1990s you will definitely remember the power forward named Lester Earl. Standing at 6’10, Lester was a jumping machine who spent most of his games dunking on opponents or swatting their shots out of bounds. Back in 1995, Earl and Kobe Bryant battled it out in a storied high school dunk contest, in which Earl finished closely in second place. The next year in 1996, Lester Earl was the slam dunk champion of the famed Boston Shootout. Earl spent his college days playing for the Kansas Jayhawks, but knee injuries derailed his NBA dreams.
Corey Benjamin
And speaking of players competing against Kobe Bryant in high school dunk contests, Corey Benjamin was another 1990s high school All-American that competed against the Black Mamba. Ask Vince Carter what was one of the most memorable slam dunk contests of the 1990s, and he will say the time Corey Benjamin battled Chicago guard Ronnie Fields was one of the best dunk contests ever. Benjamin played his college days at Oregon State before getting drafted by the Chicago Bulls. Benjamin spent four years with the Bulls and another with the Atlanta Hawks before playing in the Euroleague.
Herb White
Nicknamed the “Elevator From Decatur”, Wilt Chamberlain once said that Herb White was the greatest white dunker he had ever seen. Chamberlain said that in warmups, White used to put on a show in the early 1970s. There is also a story circulating online that White once brought the fans at Madison Square Garden to a standing ovation because of his amazing pregame dunks. Unfortunately, there are no videos of White dunking and only a handful of pictures of him, so we will just have to believe Chamberlain that White was an amazing dunker.
Michael Wilson
At this point in time, you have probably never heard of Michael Wilson. The good news is, there is a lot of footage online of Wilson playing and dunking, and even his record breaking 12-foot dunk has been documented also. Wilson spent time with the Memphis Tigers in college and then joined the Globetrotters. It has been reported than Wilson had a 52-inch vertical leap, which as insane as that is, does make sense considering he is 6’5 and dunked on a 12-foot basket.
Jackie “Sidecar” Jackson
Jackie Jackson (nicknamed Sidecar) was basically a 1960’s version of Vince Carter. Standing 6 foot 3, Jackson has often been mentioned as the only player to legit snatch a quarter from the top of the backboard. For those of you that remember the old Nike streetball commercial from the year 2000, it is Jackson that is the old man in the video. Jackson could leap so high, that at only 6’3, he averaged over 20 rebounds a game in college! Jackson is one of the few players that Wilt Chamberlain admitted himself blocked his shot and dunked on him.
Jameel Pugh
Here is an interesting one: remember the famous 2000 NBA Slam Dunk contest in which Vince Carter (in his only NBA dunk contest ever) won the trophy? Two of those dunks that Carter performed, The Elbow Dunk and the Eastbay Dunk off two legs were actually taken from Jameel Pugh. Pugh had performed those dunks during UMASS’ Midnight Madness in 1999, and Carter had seen those dunks and then added them to his bag of dunks. Pugh was named “The best dunker in the world” by Slam Magazine at a time that Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Tracey McGrady and Jason Richardson were still playing. Check out some of his dunks below.