IStock Photo 547006 © LUGO

While obeying the same laws of gravity as regular hominids, the NBA's Dwight Howard coolly flaunts his ability to jump high and dunk a basketball. Consider the 2007 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Competition. Not content with theatrics on a regulation-size 10-foot rim, the Orlando Magic center displayed some David Blaine-style sorcery when he threw down a jam with one hand and plastered a sticker on the backboard with the other—12 1/2 feet above the court. A year later in the same competition, he wheeled out a special hoop that hung 12 feet high—a full 2 feet higher than a regular basket—and proceeded to successfully dunk the slam. If you can't fathom someone leaping that far into the stratosphere, that's because the hoop was two fathoms tall.

Howard isn't partaking in the dunk contest this year—all that's left for him to try is jumping over a shark—but the 6-foot-11-inch-tall superstar routinely goes for the point blank shot more than anyone else in the NBA. Through January 26 he jammed it 64 times in 45 games, accounting for more than a quarter of his field goals.

Howard and his fellow basketball aviators skew the average, since there are some point guards who not only abstain from dunking during games, but won't even try it in practice. Only 1 in 20.59 shot attempts by NBA participants are slam dunks. Contrast that with the much more "fundamental" easy bucket, the layup—finally, a shot for the everyman!—which accounts for 1 in 4.18 shots. Fortunately for the size-impaired, layups have an equal chance of being worth as many points as a dunk, an alley-oop, a 360 tomahawk, an ollie heelflip, or a reverse windmill (One of those may instead be a skateboarding trick).

But Howard doesn't sell jerseys because of his layups, of course. His dunk totals dwarf those of next most slam-happy stars, Lakers center Pau Gasol and Cavaliers "small forward" (they really do need to change the name of that position) LeBron James.

A dunk may be breathtaking, but there's rarely a doubt about whether it will count. 1 in 1.09 dunks (92%) go in, which is as nearly-automatic as an adult claiming to always wash his or her hands after using a public restroom (The next time a TV announcer describes a dunk as “filthy,” you can bet the player won't be reaching for the hand sanitizer). There are so many elements of basketball that don't make highlight reels or boyhood posters. Passing. Setting a pick. The inbound where the defender isn't looking, so the guy bounces it lightly off his back and to himself for the layup.

So why all the ruckus over the highest-percentage shot possible? That can be answered by the Hawks’ Hall of Fame “small” forward Dominique Wilkins, perhaps the first player of his kind whose reputation became forever symbiotic with slamming. Watching his 10 best slam dunks as compiled by NBA.com makes one forget the query, or divert it to one's own worthless mortality.