Dr. J’s cradle when he swooped in for the 76ers.  Jordan’s revision of the cradle.  Or MJ’s dunk on Patrick Ewing and the NY Knick frontline.  Dominique’s follow up, when he soared in torso, head, and shoulders above everyone else one the court, and cocked the rebound two feet behind his head before rocking the rim.  And now LeBron’s alley-oop from Daniel Gibson in game one of their playoff series on Saturday.

On Sportscenter, you know going into the highlight that they are going to make the dunk, but live in full speed…that’s something different.  

On  a three-on-one fast break, it appeared Daniel Gibson had thrown the ball away from the right wing as he lobbed the ball back toward the left elbow of the foul line, diagonally across the lane for a streaking James.

Looked like a bad pass, right out of Gibson’s hand.  It was too far back.  It was too high.  But there are certain times that reinforce that the great ones are truly a notch above.  

There’s wow.  There’s Wow.  And there is WOW!

There are dunks.  Then there are highlight dunks.  And then there are the all timers that you know you are going to remember, and see highlights of, forever.  I just feel lucky that I happened to be watching.  LeBron, at full speed and at the apex of his leap, cupped the terrible looking pass that must have been twelve feet high and ten feet from the rim, and threw it home with great vengeance and furious anger.   In an anlgous world, if matching  dunkers with surf spots, he’d be Teahupoo, the heaviest and gnarliest wave according to most.  Or if matching with cars, he’d be a Hummer.  With big tires.  

Funny. Before the dunk, I noticed a dude wearing a LeBron “Witness” t-shirt.  “Witness” as if he is immortal or something.  Typical for the over hyped, over marketed and overglamorized world of today, but man, I have to admit, I knew what the shirt was saying.  The dunk clearly explained it all.

- Jesse Jones