The alley oop is defined as a play in which one player throws a pass to a teammate near the basket, which the teammate catches in mid-air and immediately dunks. All oops have a dunk so oops and dunks naturally go hand in hand.
Prior to a couple of years ago, Coach Pop did not authorize or desire alley-oops by his players. At least that is what Spurs fans believed because we never saw any. While some franchises were building their style and selling tickets off the oop, some franchises thought it was circus basketball.