No. 2 Pick Ja Morant has been nothing short of excellent in his rookie season, but on Friday night he just barely missed a chance to put himself in that legendary category.
Morant leaped over and almost cleared 6’10” Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, clipping his leg, and extended for what would’ve been a Vince Carter-esque slam. But he didn’t quite make it.
JA MORANT ALMOST SUBMITTED A LATE ENTRY FOR DUNK OF THE DECADE 😳 pic.twitter.com/rtTw6kt0Rp
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 21, 2019
Think about it like this, we’re talking about a missed dunk attempt. If he would’ve made that dunk, the whole basketball world might have exploded. People almost immediately started drawing comparisons to Vince Carter’s Olympic dunk over the 7’2 Frederick Weis in 2000, with the main difference being that Carter actually scored and sent fans into a frenzy.
Please stop comparing Ja Morant’s MISSED dunk to Vince Carter’s full leap over a 7’2 center MADE dunk!! pic.twitter.com/P8O9KFAAnK
— K.O. (@kofromatatf) December 21, 2019
“I slid over on him and he took off,” Love said about the dunk attempt. “I knew he was athletic, but damn…I was so glad he missed that dunk.”
"In the past we had done $100 a charge. … That $100 isn't worth it at this point."@kevinlove talked about the Ja Morant play postgame 😆 pic.twitter.com/ZaXF3FyngF
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 21, 2019
Despite almost getting the dunk of the decade, Morant struggled with his scoring in Friday night’s 107-114 loss to Cleveland. He finished with only eight points while shooting 36% from the field, but he contributed to the offense in other ways with 11 assists and five rebounds.
It seems like Love and the Cavaliers got the last laugh in this one.
