In the second quarter, he pirouetted around Brown, drew a foul and dunked hard.

Jake parted his lips to speak, then clamped his teeth closed, dunking long and hard before he said anything more, which was a virtue that didn't come easily for him.

Stoudemire began dunking hard as a teenager, when he was coping with family troubles.

Facing up the smaller defender, the 6-foot-9-inch Wallace used two shot fakes before going around Sprewell on the right baseline and dunking hard.

He dunked hard.

Then Kukoc followed suit on the Bulls' next possession, flying in from the right side and dunking hard over Mourning with 8 minutes 33 seconds remaining.

Thomas dunked hard on David Lee, leaving Lee with a black eye.

Two hours 30 minutes later, he rambled down the lane and dunked hard, drawing the Nets within 117-116 with 34.4 seconds left.

On one possession during a game, he came roaring down the court, dribbled between his legs and dunked hard over what Checketts remembers as "this giant Yugoslav."

Jerry Stackhouse dunked hard on the Knicks in the final seconds, a clear indication that youth was being served up again to these aging veterans.