Santi Aldama's signature reverse dunk

It's really fun when an NBA player has a signature move of some sort, whether they're a Hall-of-Famer, a star, or just a role player-- something that other people are free to do, but they're just better at. Jose Alvarado lurks out of bounds or behind referees during inbound plays, taking advantage of the other team's lack of attentiveness. Damian Lillard has the deep three (bonus points if it's the waning seconds of the final game of a playoff series). James Harden spammed the step-back three. Dirk Nowitzki had his one-legged fadeaway.

But it's kind of rare for a role player to have a signature dunk. Sure, LeBron James has his tomahawk dunk-- but he's a superstar, possibly the greatest basketball player of all time. Of course he gets a signature dunk. But to me, that's why what Santi Aldama does is so amusing and satisfying.

If you've never heard of Santi Aldama, you're probably not alone. He's a second-year power forward out of Loyola University Maryland who barely played last season but has started 16 games for the Memphis Grizzlies this year in the absense of Jaren Jackson, Jr. His numbers don't jump off the page, but he's been very solid for the Grizzlies this year, vastly improved from his rookie season when he was so raw that the Grizzlies only trusted him to play 15+ minutes seven times.

In that rookie season, though, he had a couple of iconic moments. The first was his first career double-double. Ok, you're thinking, some random bench guy got 18 points and 10 rebounds in a game. Who cares? Well, that double-double came in the Grizzlies' 73-point victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the largest margin of victory in NBA history. That's a story he'll be able to tell forever.

The second, though, is this driving reverse dunk against the #1-seeded Phoenix Suns:

That was one of the defining moments of the Grizzlies' season that was full of defining moments. Remember, the team won 10 out of 11 games immediately after losing their All-NBA point guard Ja Morant to injury, then rattled off 11 straight wins when he returned. That got them back on track, but Aldama's dunk was the spiritual nail in the coffin for one of the most significant wins of the season. This win kept the possibility alive that this team might break the franchise win total record. (They eventually tied the 56-win mark that the legendary Grit-N-Grind squad set in 2013.)

But the focus that particular night was on Aldama. He got a courtside interview immediately after the game. He got to speak at the postgame press conference later on. And it was all because of the emphatic reverse dunk-- one that has become his signature-- that he borrowed from his fellow Spaniard.

Rudy Fernández, a first-round pick in the 2007 draft, played for the Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets in the NBA before returning to Spain to play for Real Madrid. While not a Hall-of-Famer, he's got a more impressible résumé than most NBA players: he and Real Madrid have won EuroLeague twice, and while representing Spain, he's earned several gold medals at FIBA events and two Olympic silver medals. He's one of the greatest Spanish basketball players ever.

But while European NBA players come pre-packaged with the reputation of being slow and unathletic, Fernández was such a prolific dunker that he participated in the 2009 Slam Dunk Contest and threw down a nasty jam on Dwight Howard in the Olympic Gold Medal match in 2008.

Here is Rudy Fernández throwing down the dunk that Aldama loves to emulate:

And here's a compilation I made of all of Aldama's reverse dunks in his career so far. Enjoy!