Ranking OKC Thunder top 50 dunks in franchise history

No. 20: James Harden on Hickson

It’s a shame that people forget Harden can do things like this. Before he became the methodical, surgical point guard we know today, he was just a young player trying to make his mark on the league. We still get some flashes of Young Harden, sure. But nothing beats the real thing.

I mean, how could any Harden dunk possibly top this one? He annihilated J.J. Hickson on this dunk in such a way that there’s a nonzero chance that this was Hickson’s ultimate undoing. Yeah, he wasn’t a great player to begin with, but how do you recover from this play? How do you face your teammates going back to the bench? How do you look at yourself in the mirror the next morning? More importantly, how do you continue playing on the same court as the person who did this to you?

I’m not saying this specifically is the reason Hickson is out of the league, but there’s a case to be made here.