Dwight Howard is the NBA player with the most Regular season Dunks with 2,950 dunks, in second place is Shaquille O’neal with 2,626 dunks. Lebron James is the active player with the most dunks in both the Regular & Post Season with 2,107 (4th) and 353 (2nd). [updated for close of 2022-23 season]
It is worth noting that the statistic for recording dunks only started in 1996. Shaq managed this feat in far fewer games, averaging 3.1 dunks per regular season game. While Dwight managed ‘only’ 2.8. In addition Shaq was drafted in 1992 and played 4 seasons before the tracking data for dunks became standardized and so aren’t included in our data, we’ll explire this in detail later on. Let’s break down the all time leaders of dunks a bit further.
Regular Season Career Dunk leaders (since 1996)
The table below shows the 30 All time regular season dunk leaders as of the end of the 2022-23 season. We have included the numbers up to 30 as the 31st ranked player Samuel Dalembert retired 2 dunks shy of 1,000 on 998. The statistics only go back to 1996, because that is when Dunk shots were tracked and recorded consistently across the league as a seperate entity to field goals.
| Most NBA Dunks in History (tracked since 1996) – Regular Season | ||||||
| Rank | Player | Games | Dunks | Dunks Per-Game | Assisted | Assisted % |
| 1 | Dwight Howard | 1,056 | 2,950 | 2.8 | 2,093 | 70.9% |
| 2 | Shaquille O’Neal | 835 | 2,626 | 3.1 | 1,804 | 68.7% |
| 3 | DeAndre Jordan | 885 | 2,366 | 2.7 | 1,954 | 82.6% |
| 4 | LeBron James | 1,080 | 2,107 | 2.0 | 1,347 | 63.9% |
| 5 | Rudy Gobert | 601 | 1,822 | 3.0 | 1,471 | 80.7% |
| 6 | Tyson Chandler | 819 | 1,735 | 2.1 | 1,405 | 81.0% |
| 7 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 601 | 1,682 | 2.8 | 1,040 | 61.8% |
| 8 | Amar’e Stoudemire | 667 | 1,593 | 2.4 | 1,177 | 73.9% |
| 9 | Anthony Davis | 579 | 1,529 | 2.6 | 1,185 | 77.5% |
| 10 | Andre Iguodala | 811 | 1,506 | 1.9 | 1,121 | 74.4% |
| 11 | Shawn Marion | 784 | 1,482 | 1.9 | 1,225 | 82.7% |
| 12 | Kevin Durant | 739 | 1,394 | 1.9 | 994 | 71.3% |
| 13 | JaVale McGee | 629 | 1,387 | 2.2 | 1,100 | 79.3% |
| 14 | Pau Gasol | 747 | 1,374 | 1.8 | 1,086 | 79.0% |
| 15 | Kevin Garnett | 812 | 1,344 | 1.7 | 1,071 | 79.7% |
| 16 | Clint Capela | 469 | 1,325 | 2.8 | 1,204 | 90.9% |
| 17 | Andre Drummond | 616 | 1,325 | 2.2 | 1,009 | 76.2% |
| 18 | Kenyon Martin | 579 | 1,278 | 2.2 | 984 | 77.0% |
| 19 | Nenê | 643 | 1,224 | 1.9 | 984 | 80.4% |
| 20 | Tim Duncan | 710 | 1,145 | 1.6 | 853 | 74.5% |
| 21 | Blake Griffin | 484 | 1,099 | 2.3 | 850 | 77.3% |
| 22 | Dwyane Wade | 613 | 1,098 | 1.8 | 644 | 58.7% |
| 23 | Josh Smith | 588 | 1,069 | 1.8 | 797 | 74.6% |
| 24 | Mason Plumlee | 537 | 1,069 | 2.0 | 870 | 81.4% |
| 25 | Rasheed Wallace | 573 | 1,050 | 1.8 | 849 | 80.9% |
| 26 | Rudy Gay | 618 | 1,050 | 1.7 | 662 | 63.0% |
| 27 | Carmelo Anthony | 559 | 1,024 | 1.8 | 778 | 76.0% |
| 28 | Ben Wallace | 585 | 1,012 | 1.7 | 748 | 73.9% |
| 29 | Chris Webber | 500 | 1,012 | 2.0 | 781 | 77.2% |
| 30 | Kobe Bryant | 642 | 1,001 | 1.6 | 585 | 58.4% |
We said last time that number 13, Kevin Durrant had the opportunity to pass Pau Gasol as he was trailing by 17 Dunks going into the 2022-23 season. He has done that now sitting in12th place.
Anthony Davis had a chance to crack the top 10 last season, he needed just 91 dunks to pass the retired Shawn Marion. Davis recorded 138 to also leapfrog Andre Igoudala into 9th place.
Giannis had the third most dunks in 2022-23 and gained a few places, passing Amare Stoudemire into 7th place all time. Entering the season he averaged a massive 2.7 dunks per game, in 2022-23 Giannis pushed this to 3.5 dunks per game. It should not take the Greek Freak long to climb into the top 5 at that rate.
Lebron James sits in 4th place, it is unlikely that he will be able to pass (barely) active Deandre Jordan or retired Shaq now that he is aging gracefully into a more perimeter based game, but never bet against the King! In 2022-23 he recorded 74 regular season dunks, not bad for a ‘washed King’.
We’ll check back in before the start of the 2024-25 season to see who’s moved up!
Regular Season vs Playoff Dunks – NBA History
As you’ll probably know, when people talk about all time leaders in the NBA, it is by default assumed they are just talking about the regular season. Unless specifically stated this doesn’t count the Playoffs. So let’s do that, after all, dunking a lot in the playoffs is surely a more impressive feat!
| Most NBA Dunks in History (tracked since 1996) – NBA Playoffs | ||||||
| Rank | Player | Games | Dunks | Dunks Per–Game | Assisted | Assisted % |
| 1 | Shaquille O’Neal | 173 | 574 | 3.3 | 379 | 66.0% |
| 2 | LeBron James | 206 | 353 | 1.7 | 221 | 62.6% |
| 3 | Dwight Howard | 105 | 302 | 2.9 | 211 | 69.9% |
| 4 | Tim Duncan | 147 | 237 | 1.6 | 188 | 79.3% |
| 5 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 70 | 222 | 3.2 | 136 | 61.3% |
| 6 | Andre Iguodala | 114 | 205 | 1.8 | 155 | 75.6% |
| 7 | Kevin Durant | 115 | 195 | 1.7 | 143 | 73.3% |
| 8 | Dwyane Wade | 110 | 179 | 1.6 | 92 | 51.4% |
| 9 | Clint Capela | 69 | 167 | 2.4 | 155 | 92.8% |
| 10 | Ben Wallace | 86 | 164 | 1.9 | 118 | 72.0% |
| 11 | Rudy Gobert | 49 | 159 | 3.2 | 133 | 83.6% |
| 12 | Kenyon Martin | 82 | 155 | 1.9 | 114 | 73.5% |
| 13 | Pau Gasol | 82 | 152 | 1.9 | 115 | 75.7% |
| 14 | Kobe Bryant | 106 | 147 | 1.4 | 85 | 57.8% |
| 15 | Anthony Davis | 47 | 141 | 3.0 | 112 | 79.4% |
| 16 | Amar’e Stoudemire | 57 | 140 | 2.5 | 99 | 70.7% |
| 17 | DeAndre Jordan | 50 | 138 | 2.8 | 116 | 84.1% |
| 18 | Serge Ibaka | 78 | 130 | 1.7 | 101 | 77.7% |
| 19 | Richard Jefferson | 76 | 128 | 1.7 | 101 | 78.9% |
| 20 | Kawhi Leonard | 80 | 127 | 1.6 | 65 | 51.2% |
| 21 | Bam Adebayo | 59 | 126 | 2.1 | 93 | 73.8% |
| 22 | Shawn Marion | 66 | 126 | 1.9 | 105 | 83.3% |
| 23 | Al Horford | 82 | 125 | 1.5 | 96 | 76.8% |
| 24 | Rasheed Wallace | 76 | 120 | 1.6 | 90 | 75.0% |
| 25 | Kevin Garnett | 77 | 110 | 1.4 | 88 | 80.0% |
| 26 | Tyson Chandler | 50 | 108 | 2.2 | 89 | 82.4% |
| 27 | Chris Webber | 55 | 97 | 1.8 | 68 | 70.1% |
| 28 | Brook Lopez | 51 | 96 | 1.9 | 80 | 83.3% |
| 29 | Jimmy Butler | 57 | 93 | 1.6 | 62 | 66.7% |
| 30 | Tristan Thompson | 57 | 93 | 1.6 | 72 | 77.4% |
As you might expect, 3x Finals MVP and regular season Dunk leader The Big Diesel, dominates playoff dunks. There is a high chance that no one will catch him. If any current player was going to then the best candidate is Giannis. His impressive 2.7 dunks per game in the regular season leaps to 3.2 in the Playoffs. Shaq, not to be outdone, saw his massive 3.1 dunks per game leap to 3.3 for the Playoffs across his career. While Giannis may eventually manage to muster more games, it seems unlikely that Giannis will be able to keep that pace up long enough to catch Shaq. It is clear that since 1996 (and probably ever) Shaquille O’neal has been the most dominant dunker in the NBA.
Most Dunks in a single NBA Game
The player with the most Dunks in a single NBA game is Shaq. During his legendary career he made 11 dunks 3 times, all for the Lakers. No other NBA player has ever made more than 10 dunks in a game.
The top 20 single game dunk totals are listed below. Active players highlughted in bold.
| Rank | Player | Date | For | H/R | Against | Made Dunks |
| 1 | Shaquille O’Neal | 3/6/2000 | LAL | @ | LAC | 11 |
| 2 | Shaquille O’Neal | 3/19/2002 | LAL | @ | DAL | 11 |
| 3 | Shaquille O’Neal | 3/21/2003 | LAL | BOS | 11 | |
| 4 | Clint Capela | 12/11/2017 | HOU | NOP | 10 | |
| 5 | Dwight Howard | 11/23/2007 | ORL | CHA | 10 | |
| 6 | Montrezl Harrell | 12/1/2021 | WAS | MIN | 10 | |
| 7 | DeAndre Jordan | 1/21/2009 | LAC | LAL | 10 | |
| 8 | Shaquille O’Neal | 3/26/2003 | LAL | @ | HOU | 10 |
| 9 | Rudy Gobert | 3/2/2022 | UTA | @ | HOU | 10 |
| 10 | Shaquille O’Neal | 11/29/2002 | LAL | @ | MEM | 9 |
| 11 | Dwight Howard | 2/25/2011 | ORL | OKC | 9 | |
| 12 | Andre Drummond | 11/25/2014 | DET | @ | MIL | 9 |
| 13 | Dwight Howard | 2/20/2008 | ORL | @ | TOR | 9 |
| 14 | Shaquille O’Neal | 4/15/2002 | LAL | SEA | 9 | |
| 15 | DeAndre Jordan | 1/2/2016 | LAC | PHI | 9 | |
| 16 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 3/24/2019 | MIL | CLE | 9 | |
| 17 | Shaquille O’Neal | 1/22/2002 | LAL | DEN | 9 | |
| 18 | Dwight Howard | 11/28/2007 | ORL | @ | SEA | 9 |
It is clear from this table just how dominant Shaq was. As well as holding the top 3 spots, he holds 4 more, giving him 7 of the top 20 spots. Every other player on the list is still active in the NBA. Dwight Howard also appears on the list 4 times. (all data taken from 1996 onwards).
We have uncovered some evidence that Shaq actually recorded 13 Dunks in a single game during his 1992-93 Rookie season. Although this is not part of the official NBA record, it’s worth looking at further.
Does Shaq have more dunks than Dwight Howard?
Thanks to some great investigating by Ryan Goodwin at Hoopsong.com who posted on the NBA Reddit, which you can read in detail here, Proof exists that Shaq not only set a higher single game dunk record than his post 1996 mark of 11 in his Rookie year, but he also set the most dunks in a season record at a massive 322. Adding just his Rookie season on to his post 1996 official record takes him past Dwight Howard to top of the all-time dunk charts.
The information came to light when viewing Shaqs Rookie Card, pictured above. Claiming he posted “more than twice as many dunks as any other player” it then lists dunks in his stats at a whopping 322. This is more than the post 1996 record of 308 set by Rudy Gobert for the Jazz.
On digging for verification of this stat Ryan uncovered that legendary NBA statistician and Phildaelphia 76ers Media Relations executive Harvey Pollack had published the same stat in his 1993 Sixers Media Guide. On page 146 (pictured below), it lists the same rookie season dunk total for Shaq at 322.
If you add just Shaq’s rookie season 322 dunks onto his post 1996 total of 2,626, you end up with 2,948, which is just 2 dunks short of Howards official record of 2,950 career dunks. I think it’s safe to assume that a young Shaq in his athletic prime would have made at least 3 dunks in the 3 seasons between 1993 and 1996 to close the gap and pass Howard.
Shquille O’neil made more dunks in his career than Dwight Howard. (that feels so good to type out).
However we can’t officially give the Big Diesel this title, even though he may have close to 1,000 dunks still missing from his official career total. The reason for this is there was ALOT of basketball played between 1946 and 1996 when the Dunk stat was first recorded officially.
While we have peiced together a small portion of the missing history for Shaq, there are players such as Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar who played their entire careers prior to 1996. Until 2023 Kareem was the All-time leading scorer in NBA history and was 7ft2. Wilt Chamberlain was a big man so dominant that he holds NBA records that may never be beaten, including his famed 100 point game and averaging 50 points per game in the 1961-62 season. Can we say for certainty that Shaq made more dunks than either of these 2 players? No. So until Dwight Howard is passed in the official dunks table, he remains the NBA’s most prolific dunker.
Who has the most dunks in an NBA season?
The single season leader for NBA dunks is Rudy Gobert who posted 306 dunks for the Utah Jazz in the 2018-19 season. He did this in 80 games, averaging 3.8 dunks per game.
| Rk | Player | Season | Team | Games | Dunks | Dunks per Game |
| 1 | Rudy Gobert | 2018-19 | UTA | 80 | 306 | 3.8 |
| 2 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 2018-19 | MIL | 69 | 279 | 4.0 |
| 3 | Dwight Howard | 2007-08 | ORL | 76 | 269 | 3.5 |
| 4 | Shaquille O’Neal | 2004-05 | MIA | 71 | 255 | 3.6 |
| 5 | Dwight Howard | 2006-07 | ORL | 79 | 254 | 3.2 |
| 6 | DeAndre Jordan | 2016-17 | LAC | 78 | 253 | 3.2 |
| 7 | DeAndre Jordan | 2014-15 | LAC | 78 | 252 | 3.2 |
| 8 | Shaquille O’Neal | 2001-02 | LAL | 64 | 252 | 3.9 |
| 9 | Shaquille O’Neal | 2002-03 | LAL | 64 | 251 | 3.9 |
| 10 | DeAndre Jordan | 2013-14 | LAC | 78 | 245 | 3.1 |
Second on the list is Giannis Antetokounmpo who is the only player in the top 10 to have a 4 dunks per game average. Managing only 69 games, his 279 dunks for the Bucks in 2018-19 is outstanding. Shaq appears in the top 10 three times, with his forementioned Rookie Season total of 322 being absent from the official record and the 3 seasons that followed it. Deandre Jordan also appears 3 time son the list owing to his time with Chris Paul playing for the Lob City Clippers.
Lebron James highest entry comes in at just number 126 when he posted 145 dunks in the 2016-17 season, in just 66 games.
The Unassisted Dunk
Let’s face it, that list is dominated by big men, while that’s exciting, there’s nothing as exciting as watching a small forward or guard weave through the lane and throw one down in traffic. Often this type of dunk is “unassisted”, so let’s sort all the leading dunkers by % of Dunks that didn’t get an assist. That should give us a list of some of the most exciting dunkers in the NBA since 1996.
| All Time NBA Leaders | |||
| Rank | Player | Dunks | Assist % |
| 1 | Russell Westbrook | 595 | 47% |
| 2 | Kobe Bryant | 1001 | 58% |
| 3 | Dwyane Wade | 1098 | 59% |
| 4 | Vince Carter | 941 | 61% |
| 5 | Tracy McGrady | 732 | 62% |
| 6 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | 1484 | 63% |
| 7 | Rudy Gay | 1039 | 63% |
| 8 | LeBron James | 2033 | 64% |
| 9 | Brendan Haywood | 799 | 64% |
| 10 | Trevor Ariza | 613 | 66% |
That’s more like it, Westbrook, Kobe, Wade, Vince, Tracy… explosive one on one players that got mega jams at the rim, over and over again. You’ll notice the absence of key names Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’neal, who would have taken assists on a great many of their dunks.
You’ll notice the presence of two names. Lebron and Giannis. High on the regular season list, high on the playoff list and high on the unassisted list. Pure. Dunk. Machines.