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Alec Burks' right arm was cocked back and his eyes were at just the right height to check the top of the rim for blemishes when he put the final exclamation point on a blowout victory Monday night. The Utah Jazz guard soared through the air past Phoenix's Jon Leuer, then pulled the trigger, firing basketball downward and through the hoop with the kind of force that causes people to jump out of their seats.
And in doing so, he briefly reignited a debate as old as, let's say, slow-motion replay.
If a hand didn't touch the rim, was it a dunk?
The Jazz slammed the book on doubters.
"That counts. That counts. It felt like Dwight Howard's Superman dunk where he just threw it in," said shooting guard Rodney Hood, referencing the winning entry in the 2008 Slam Dunk contest. "That counts. That's definitely a dunk."
Point guard Raul Neto leaned strongly toward yes, though he hedged a bit.
"I would say it was a crazy play. I don't know if it was a dunk or not," he said. "It was a crazy play. There's no words to say. It was crazy."
And not only did Jazz captain Gordon Hayward rule in favor of its status as a dunk, he took a moment to talk a little playful smack.
"I told Alec that that's a way better dunk than anything [Jeremy Evans] has ever done," said Hayward, who is close friends with the former Slam Dunk champ. "We'll see what Jeremy says when I talk to him."
Only Burks seemed unimpressed by the play — though in his confident but understated way.
"It was cool," he said. "I do that. I don't worry about it."
The man wouldn't even say it was the best dunk of his career.
"Nah," he said. "I've done some things before."
When he got back to the locker room, however, Burks said he made sure his former dunk champ teammate knew all about it.
"He was the first one I texted," Burks said of Evans. "He got a couple of the videos, different angles."
So Evans saw in detail what Burks did Monday night with just over two minutes to play against the visiting Suns, with the Jazz already up 100-79. So did anybody who watched SportsCenter's Top 10 plays.
"It's up there" with the best plays of the year, Hood said. "I'm going to go on a limb and say it's up there with [Trevor Booker's no-look tap] from last year. … Everybody was going crazy, myself included. It was a great play."
Yeah, but was it a dunk?
"I thought it was an and-one," said Burks, who hit Leuer on the drive and fell to the floor after scoring.
The play caused a massive celebration on the Jazz bench, with Burks' teammates leaping out of their chairs and alternately spilling onto the court and holding each other back.
"I hope nobody gets any fines because I think we came back a little on the court," Neto said with a grin. "It was just emotion. We couldn't hold it."
But was it a dunk?
The people at Merriam-Webster would seem to think so. The dictionary defines the dunk, in a basketball sense, this way: "to throw [a basketball] into the basket from above the rim."
Check, check and check.
And the Jazz's Booker would seem to agree. After Burks' threw it down on Leuer, the high-energy forward could be seen in the corner letting loose a high kick and a karate-style chop in celebration.
"That was Blake Griffin-like," Booker said of Burks' play.
OK, so one last time, was it a dunk?
Maybe don't ask the coach who watched the Suns inbound the ball quickly amid the chaos of celebration and drive the length of the floor for an easy bucket — especially not when his team has to next face the run-and-gun Golden State Warriors on the road.
Asked for his ruling, dunk or no, Jazz coach Quin Snyder said, "It was two points the other way in transition … because we didn't get back."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Jazz at Warriors
P At Oracle Arena (Oakland, Calif.)
Tipoff • Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.
TV • ROOT Sports
Radio • 1280 AM, 97.5 FM
About the Jazz • Wins over Western Conference foes Denver and Phoenix have them sitting in eighth place at the moment with a record of 12-14. … Battled the Warriors to the end earlier this month in Salt Lake City, but will be without center Rudy Gobert this time around. … Averaging an extra three 3-pointers a game (and shooting 37 percent on more than 24 attempts per game) since Gobert injured his MCL in early December.
About the Warriors • At 26-1 they're no longer unbeaten, but they're still on pace to set the NBA's single-season wins record. … Reigning MVP Steph Curry is the league's leading scorer, averaging 31.8 points per game. … Former Runnin' Ute Andrew Bogut is listed as questionable to play due to a back sprain. Forward Harrison Barnes (left ankle sprain) is out.