When we think dunks, we think backboards shattering and rims falling to the parquet. That was Shaquille O’Neal on a good day. He was memorable but there are a few names that preceded him who made posterizing an artform. Shawn Kemp was among them. And he grew up watching a different breed of slam dunkers who made the NBA entertaining. So if Kemp stops by All The Smoke, Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson had to ask him to name his top 5 picks for the best dunk stars of all time. Once again, this list can be contentious for who got snubbed.

Shawn Kemp’s top 5 ‘Most Ferocious Dunkers of all time’ barring himself include Daryl Dawkins, “Dr Dunkenstein” aka Darrell Griffith, Terence Stansbury, David Thompson, and Dominique Wilkins. Now to most observers, the prominent absence of Shaq would sting as much as Kemp’s omission from the Hall of Fame discussion. But he far from invalidates Big Diesel.

He needed time to think about the fifth name when Barnes suggested Shaq. Kemp replied, “I mean Shaq is a, you know, different beast,” which is his way of saying that he loved watching O’Neal’s monstrous dunks just as much. But the people in his top 5 list are ones he grew up watching and imitating.

The late Daryl Dawkins was knighted Chocolate Thunder by Stevie Wonder for his inhumane dunks. After he shattered rims twice, the NBA actually adopted flexible breakaway rims. It seems like Kemp couldn’t get enough of backboard breakers. Luckily flexible rims did nothing for Shaq who broke 12 rims in his entire career. He was a big enough terror that his ex-agent told EssentiallySports the NBA was scared of Reebok’s dunkman logo on the Shaq Attaq sneakers for understandable reasons.

Shawn Kemp has no animosity with Shaq to leave him out. His selection is solely on people who inspired him. He resonates with them for more than their powerful slams.

The respect is mutual for Shaq

In Kemp’s list, Dawkins and Stansbury are not in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame though they are included in other halls of fame. Shaq was inducted in the 2016 class, Wilkins in 2006, and Griffith in 2014, and Thompson in 1996. Kemp is widely regarded as one of the last stars of the ’90s deserving of the Naismith honor but snubbed over and over. On this show though, he stated on the record he’s as deserving of HoF status as his former teammate and Shaq’s BFF Charles Barkley.

Shaq might agree. Very recently O’Neal was fanboying over two of his favorite dunking duos – Sonics legends Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. He made an unofficial petition to bring back the Seattle Supersonics who boasted this star power. Shaq even named Kemp among two others when asked about “powerful dunker of all time.”

Not being in Kemp’s list doesn’t hurt Shaq. Because he’s clearly on Shaq’s most ferocious dunkers list.