The Dunk – explained

During EuroBasket 2025, Miikka Muurinen made a dunk that came the talking point of many sauna evenings – and also one angle of this image came the Sports Photo of the Year 2025 in Finland.

Also – Joonas Caven captured this from a GREAT angle and made a poster of the image for Miikka.

Now, my image is a little different – and I thought to write a little about the photo.

This image also shows – for me – why all photos don’t fit to the Instagram format. This only works when you see the whole image.

For me, I like the wide angle view – show the big arena. Shows the ‘Tampere’ logo, ‘EuroBasket’ logo. Just gives some context to the place and occasion where the dunk was performed.

Now – to the numbered points :

1 – I just love the way Susijengi captain Sasu Salin is almost joining in, in the dunk. You can see his expression and posture just willing for the dunk to go in and the whole Arena to explode.

2 – Susijengi veteran, Ilari Seppälä clearly just bending himself to get a better look or a better angle to see the dunk. Also seeing the expectation in his posture.

3 – Ex-Susijengi Head Coach Henrik Dettman there on the courtside seats, and his leg lifting up as Miikka goes for a dunk. This is quite a show of emotion from Henrki 😉 Also – you can see Ruutu commentator Kristian Palotie about to shout into his mic and let the TV audience know what is about to happen.

4 – Lauri Markkanen – calmly looking there on the background and with a knowing look on his face.

5 – The faces of Team GB players – knowing they will be part of a video/image that will circulate the online world for years to come.

6 – The first fans starting to get up – before rest of the crowd follows!

7 (I know there is no #7) – Lassi Tuovi just standing there with arms folded – just thinking that Miikka is doing Miikka things.. that’s all.

• The lighting – I know, I could have shot the image in RAW – so would have had chance to edit it more. But – the upper stands of the Arena are all black/dark, so the image loses some impact as the whole crowd is not visible. This was a pet hate of mine on all my wide angle images from Tampere.
• The score – 87-56 … I mean, it really should not matter, but it is one of those things that in the big picture – this dunk ‘doesn’t matter’. Finland is up by over 30 points by this point. Now that is just me being pedantic – but I would love this image more if the score would have been 86-86 and last second of the game. The image would not be any better – but the story of the image would be more impactful.
• Legs of players #15 and #32 for Team GB – they are cut out of the frame, just hate that.

Probably not – and there are images that would have more stories and impact, but – time for those will come later. The reason I posted this on the last day of the year… is that this image, well – different versions of it, have been all over the social media.

And I just felt like sharing my little image and the stories is tells me, as a photographer.

Thanks for dropping by – and feel free to leave any comments you have about the photo!