The Pew Research Center recently confirmed our suspicions that social media isn’t exactly the best measuring stick for public opinion. But Twitter allows us, in real time, to witness and gauge the reactions of those whose opinions matter to us, unfiltered and raw.

This is perhaps more true for the sports community than any other. Which brings us to last night’s proceedings.

During a game against the Detroit Pistons, DeAndre Jordan, center for the Los Angeles Clippers, became the centerpiece of an alley-oop that left an arena in awe, social media abuzz, and one poor guard the victim of an endless barrage of tweets, GIFs, and some combination thereof. How breathtaking was the dunk? In the bottom-left corner of the video, you’ll notice Matt Barnes, number twenty-two, who, after witnessing this colossal display of strength and athleticism, has no recourse but to jump, cover his mouth, and run ninety feet to the opposite end of the court and back.

Brandon Knight, the Piston who, in a moment of panic, chose to jump and contest the impending disaster, responded in the only way he could: with humor. No matter, though. It is in these moments that we see how cold and unforgiving the Internet can be. In the immediate aftermath, someone went so far as to update Knight’s Wikipedia page to reflect the dunk: “On March 10, 2013 Knight died in a game vs the Los Angeles Clippers. The cause of death was determined to be DeAndre Jordan.”

Let’s be honest: 2013 hasn’t been kind to Brandon Knight. Just a month ago, his ankles were the victims of a Kyrie Irving crossover during All-Star Weekend’s Rising Stars Challenge. Were it not for Miami Heat center Chris Bosh, Knight’s sixth sense for being in the wrong place at the wrong time would be legendary.

Knight’s predicament is unfortunate. Plenty of players have been dunked on before, but few have had to endure the backlash in an era of YouTube, Twitter, and multiple twenty-four-hour sports networks. In less than a day, a movement was spawned to name this the dunk of the year, perhaps even the greatest of all time. Jordan’s teammate and fellow above-the-rim superstar Blake Griffin has been its evangelist.

Is the rush to share and proclaim a positive development for the game? Overall, yes—it allows fans to engage in a discussion they would otherwise be cordoned off from. But, hopefully, this instantaneous hoopla isn’t enough to supplant the rightful contenders for the “greatest in-game dunk” title. Michael Jordan over Patrick Ewing involved two Hall of Famers; this had none. Eleven-time N.B.A. champion Bill Russell once famously jumped over a defender and dunked from the free-throw line. Neither of these had the benefit of GIF-by-GIF analysis. Twitter is entertaining, certainly, but it suffers from significant memory loss of both the short- and long-term varieties. Which is more than you can say about Brandon Knight—who will have to replay this memory for the rest of his life.

Photograph by Reed Saxon/AP.