All these years later, when Griner is reminded of that game, she always points out the same thing: Phoenix lost. Still, getting those dunks out of the way helped ease the load on Griner in the early days of her rookie season, said former Mercury coach Corey Gaines, now an assistant for the Washington Wizards. It's done.
It's over with. Now, you can start working on the real stuff. Griner went on to become the WNBA's all-time leader in career blocks and is also a two-time scoring champion. If I get hung, I get hung. Thankfully, I haven't got hung yet, but if I miss it, I miss it -- at least it's a dunk attempt.
Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Phoenix Mercury. Everything we know about new pro women's Athletes Unlimited Basketball league. Washington Mystics. Toronto Raptors. WNBA players look to expand community support.
Los Angeles Sparks. Houston Astros. Bird: Prospect of playing in new arena 'tempting'. Seattle Storm. Atlanta Dream. Ten biggest questions for the WNBA offseason. Chicago Sky. Why the WNBA may be entering thrive mode. With the WNBA playoffs underway , take a look back at all of the dunkers in the league's history. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Michelle Snow was the third player in women's college basketball ever to dunk in a game. Candace Parker dunked in the final seconds of a Los Angeles Sparks game in , becoming the second player to dunk during a regular-season game in league history.
While everyone on this list is able to get above the rim, none of them can dunk quite like Brittney Griner. A pure athlete, she exploded onto the scene in high school when she dunked an extremely impressive 52 times during her senior season. She also dunked twice in her WNBA debut, and has 13 dunks during her time in the league.
Another All-Star game dunker, Jonquel Jones managed to put one down in while playing in her first all-star game. Her one-handed slam shows that women of different sizes can get up.
Though she also dunked during a WNBA all-star in , nothing is more impressive than slamming one down on the world stage. Though it may be surprising to some, there are quite a few WNBA players who have been able to dunk over the years. Some dunks were easy and straightforward, while some were a bit more impressive. She remembers going to Summit crying when people called her unladylike and says her coach told her to buck up: "You do realize you've just sealed your fate as far as going pro, right?
Sometimes people will make you cry. After you finish crying, go prove them wrong. After her opening night miss, it was Leslie who, in , would go on to prove everyone wrong by sinking the first dunk in WNBA history, dropping the ball in the hoop so smoothly you'd swear it was the easiest thing she'd done that day. The crowd exploded, and just like that—five years after it began—there was dunking in women's professional basketball.
Men aren't encouraging their little girls to try to work on their hops. It's such a sexist approach to the sport sometimes. It would be another six years before the WNBA would see another in-game dunk.
Candace Parker, who's currently leading the reigning champion Los Angeles Sparks in their second consecutive Finals appearance, doesn't dunk much anymore "I wish I wouldn't have gotten injured; my legs would still be a little bouncier" , but dunks in back -to- back games in made critics wonder if she would be the one to make women dunking finally stop being newsworthy. Now, for example, it's more athletic than it was early on. There are plenty of current WNBA players who can dunk and just haven't in a regular or postseason game—they save their slams for warm-ups or practice.
One of the primary reasons for that is injury prevention. Then there's job security: "The older you get, the more miles you have on your legs—those days are over for me," says the New York Liberty 's Tina Charles, who dunked in high school and college. Given the relatively modest salaries of professional women's basketball players and smaller set of options for those who can't hang in the WNBA , it's pragmatic to avoid, say, breaking your arm in three places during practice.
Women dunking is no longer revolutionary, but it's still far from ubiquitous—and the recent spate of viral dunks, including Amihere's, could expedite what all signs point to being just another phase in the evolution of the women's game. Whether they're entering dunk contests or just posting videos on Instagram, I think it's huge.
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