{"id":28595,"date":"2025-07-28T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28595\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:09:09","slug":"nba-announces-ja-morant-wins-unexpected-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28595\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Announces Ja Morant Wins Unexpected Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_bplwlpcqj\">It was NBA Dunk Week last week, as the league revisited all of the best dunks from the 2024-25 season. They allowed fans to vote on the finalists, and a slightly surprising answer came out on top. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_v50cg48gk\">Memphis Grizzlies&#8217; Ja Morant was named the winner of the AT&amp;T NBA Dunk of the Year for his double-clutched two-handed reverse against the Boston Celtics, going between Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis to flush it home. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8The results are in for AT&amp;T Dunk of the Year\ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n<p>Ja Morant takes home the first 2024-25 NBA Fan Favorites Award for his show-stopping reverse jam, as voted by YOU, the fans! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/76AMFDpkIG\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/76AMFDpkIG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1949942249476768256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_di8ocefoj\">Morant was called the most athletic player in the NBA by Stephen Curry recently, so it isn&#8217;t surprising that he won it, but there were a lot of strong contenders this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_o7is8cfwk\">The one that immediately came to mind, and it was a strong contender, was <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/trailblazers\/status\/1948776579750134258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Shaedon Sharpe<\/a>&#8216;s poster dunk over Justin Champagnie of the Washington Wizards. Los Angeles Lakers star <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FadeAwayMedia\/status\/1876791722669154757\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">LeBron James<\/a> also had a nice dunk where he switched hands mid-air against the Dallas Mavericks. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant\" title=\"Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 18, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images \/ Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_5hkt8kdnt\">Ja Morant is one of the best in-game dunkers in the NBA. He joked last year that he was going to stop dunking when it wasn&#8217;t necessary, then continued to be as flashy as he&#8217;s always been. He&#8217;s yet to compete in the NBA Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend, as many stars don&#8217;t want to compete in it anymore, but he&#8217;d be the favorite if he ever wanted to. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_89aqiovkw\">The Grizzlies&#8217; star point guard averaged 23.2 PPG, 7.3 APG, and 4.1 RPG in 50 games this season. He&#8217;s been plagued by injuries the last few seasons, and it came back up to bite him in the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_t6l6e8b2v\"><a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/grizzlies\/news\/grizzlies-star-named-top-three-most-overrated-nba-player-01k16ge6b567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Grizzlies Star Named Top-Three &#8216;Most Overrated&#8217; NBA Player<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_f3kfwodlc\"><a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/grizzlies\/news\/ja-morant-s-insane-dunk-in-china-goes-viral-01k13pww313p\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ja Morant&#8217;s Insane Dunk in China Goes Viral<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_2588f685i\"><a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/grizzlies\/news\/grizzlies-make-announcement-on-celtics-pistons-hawks-games-01k120kwdnba\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Grizzlies Make Announcement on Celtics, Pistons, Hawks Games<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was NBA Dunk Week last week, as the league revisited all of the best dunks from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-28595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}