{"id":539394,"date":"2026-01-15T23:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539394\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T23:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:40:21","slug":"anthony-black-dunked-on-4-grizzlies-for-nbas-play-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539394\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Black dunked on 4 Grizzlies for NBA\u2019s play of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Anthony Black is having a breakout third season for the Orlando Magic. The No. 6 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Black stood out after one year at Arkansas as a big guard who could lock down on the defensive end with a connective offensive skill set. His shooting and overall scoring punch were more of a question, but he\u2019s answered both definitively this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">As the Magic and Memphis Grizzlies played in Germany on Thursday, Black produced the signature play of his career so far \u2014 and maybe even the NBA\u2019s dunk of the year. Teammate Paolo Banchero grabbed a loose ball and kicked it ahead to Black. He eyed up Memphis rookie wing Cedric Coward, crossed him over, and then rose for a dunk as three more Grizzlies defenders all jumped to try to challenge the shot.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Four leaping bodies could not stop Black. I\u2019m not sure if there\u2019s been a better dunk this season. Watch the play here:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The view from behind the play makes it look even better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/college-basketball\/2023\/3\/17\/23644201\/kansas-vs-arkansas-march-madness-ncaa-tournament-analysis-bill-self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:I remember watching Black, Jordan Walsh, and Nick Smith Jr. in March Madness on a star-studded 2023 Arkansas team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">I remember watching Black, Jordan Walsh, and Nick Smith Jr. in March Madness on a star-studded 2023 Arkansas team<\/a> that reached the Sweet 16. Black obviously had great size for a guard with a strong 6\u20196 frame, and he had a rare willingness to do the dirty work from a young age for a player who was a five-star recruit and McDonald\u2019s All-American. On the brink of his 22nd birthday, he\u2019s now learning how to use that physicality on the offensive end. This is the most spectacular example yet.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Black has gone from 4.6 points per game to 9.4 to 15.7 this year in his first three seasons. He\u2019s still scoring a tinge below league average in terms of efficiency, and his three-point shot has more room to grow at about 35 percent. Still, this play is proof that Black has some special gifts. He\u2019s really starting to put it all together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Black is having a breakout third season for the Orlando Magic. The No. 6 overall pick in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[1616,1130,7,3522,294,4989,293,177,4070,6,10673,76,402],"class_list":["post-539394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-2023-nba-draft","tag-anthony-black","tag-basketball","tag-cedric-coward","tag-grizzlies","tag-jordan-walsh","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-nba","tag-nick-smith-jr","tag-orlando-magic","tag-paolo-banchero"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115901761088956845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}