So I caught a little grief about saying Nick Young dunked "on" Fabricio Oberto. That's fair. On indeed means on and it should be reserved for when there's clear contact between the dunker and the player being dunked on. Take for example, this dunk:
Now that's a dunk on someone. I'm pretty sure Shawn Bradley still has marks (both physically and emotionally) from that posterization. Dunks like that are the why we say dunked ON, not dunks like this. I get that. But what happens to all the great dunks over the years that have happened without contact?
What do we call Starks dunk in the '93 Conference Finals? What about this dunk by Dwight Howard? Saying that the dunk happened "on" someone isn't fair, but just calling it a dunk doesn't seem fair either.
Basically, what I'm saying is that we need a new term for a dunk where the dunker narrowly beats the defender to the rim, but doesn't dunk "on" anyone. Here are two ideas I'm toying with:
"Starks" - Obviously named after the man behind the most famous dunk that fits in this category. Defenders would be the ones that are Starksed and dunkers are pulling a Starks
Examples in sentences: D-Wade just Starksed Chris Kaman!
I think Jordan Farmar just pulled a Starks on Tim Duncan!
"Apex" - The apex is defined as "the point of culmination" which in basketball, would obviously be the rim. So in the cases that we've been talking about, all the players have beaten their man to the apex.
Examples in sentences: That was a nasty apex by Kevin Martin.
Chris Paul totally just apexed Dwight Howard.
Anyways, those are just some thoughts on the issue. If you have some ideas on what to call it, chime in. Also, if you want to talk about how many sentences in this post ended with a preposition, you know what the comments are here for.
UPDATE: And the debate rages on! I hope I didn't inadvertently start a blog war.