Iconic Warriors Dunk Tournament, the Grand Final

Last chance to choose between past and present posters

You can see all past voting at the Iconic Warriors Dunks Tournament Overview (now permanently pinned to our sidebar).

Most Iconic Warriors Dunk Tournament

The question is simple: What is the most iconic Warriors dunk?

To settle this extremely important matter, we will have a straight single elimination bracket tournament. You might say, wait isn’t this just an excuse to rewatch fantastic dunks? Of course not, this is purely for science.

DNHQ commenters nominated a number of dunks. I filtered out 16 based on whether I could find an official NBA or ESPN YouTube video about the play. The reasoning is simple: How iconic can a play be if it doesn’t have its own video?

I considered determining the seeding using the same strategy as NCAA March Madness Committees — “pulling it out of my butt” — but I opted to seed the plays based on the number of views the official video had. Humans must make the final decision. Humans like you.

I suggest for this very scientific process that you carefully view each dunk and put the volume on loud.

Here are the four finalists, which we will vote for in one single final poll.

#1 Baron on Kirilenko

#5 Barnes on Pekovic

#7 Wiggins on Doncic

#11 Klay's first dunk back

Vote

To vote, you can use the Substack poll here or write a comment votes with explanation (worth 10 poll votes), including exactly one hashtag #ONE, #FIVE, #SEVEN, #ELEVEN.

I’m counting exactly those hashtags, not #5, etc. If you put multiple hashtags, even as a joke, it makes a lot more work for me. Please don’t.

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Results of Last Vote

The weighted results of last vote.

• 22% — #8 Dray to Steph to KD alley-oop (poll 25%, comments 20%)

• 77% — #1 Baron on Kirilenko (poll 71%, comments 80%)

Easy win by the presumptive favorite, but not as solid a win as you’d expect. I think the favorite is vulnerable in the finals…

Dub Nation Speaks

they thunder, we ponder

• GlueAndBold (3 ♡):

  #EIGHT I voted for the non-Baron Davis one because it is my favorite basketball play I’ve ever seen. So, iconic to me at least. I know the Baron Davis dunk is the “right” choice and it will win.

• Goofus (10 ♡):

  One dunk sent Dubs fans to heaven,

  And it ended AK-47,

  It made Jazz fans hopes curdle,

  When Davis showed off his girdle,

  On 1-to-10 scale, eleven

• belilaugh (9 ♡):

  #ONE, easy call for me. People remember that series like the Warriors won it because of that dunk even though they lost it 4-1 lol.

• WarriorsGoldenGirl (7 ♡):

  This was a hard one! I really appreciate how these dunks perfectly encapsulate their respective eras of amazing Dubs basketball. Baron's was a stupendous callback to 90's tough guy, individual play - strong arming over any obstacle. But the Dray/Steph/KD play will always own my heart and imagination. It's the epitome of the beautiful game - vision, timing, seamless teamwork to complete a thrilling play. Definitely Baron's was the more significant one, but damn, I love poetry in motion.

• DFiB (5 ♡):

  Nah... the TV adjusts the crowd volume accordingly. The crowd was super alive, and then reached another level. Like maybe they're were in a little lull of a post climax bliss because the game had already been won... it was super loud all damn game, and then got EVEN LOUDER WHEN BD DUNKED ALLLLL OVER A PERENNIAL DOPY candidate, and fans #WEBELIEVE'd that we should have been up 3-0, and were one home game away from taking back the series momentum. It was an incredibly special moment.

  Now I kinda want these Warriors to go into the playoffs with a 42-40 record and #WEBELIEVEAGAIN the @#$@#$ out of these playoffs.

  Damn, I went back and looked at the team splits for that year... Nellie was sooo ahead of his time, playing 5 out and shooting a bunch of 3s... most in the league even with very mediocre 3pt shooting, it worked because even a 33% 3pt shot was good offense back then, just nobody else realized it... and Don didn't quite realize how much he should push it.

• stopnpop (5 ♡):

  I was there and I had to yell to talk to my friend seated next to me. Crazy loud! And I didn't see anyone sit down even during half-time!

• kinbote (5 ♡):

  The Dray to Steph to KD dunk is like watching the Blue Angels fly really close to each other: a fascinating display of excessive power and technique.

  The Baron Davis dunk has the plucky underdog appeal, plus it's just an incredible dunk, so #ONE it is.