The Death of the Dunk Contest
Ahead of tonight’s All-Star Saturday Night, excitement amongst fans is at an all-time low, so let’s explore why one of the highlights of the NBA season has lost its excitement.
*** UPDATE: MAC MCCLUNG SAVED THE DUNK CONTEST! WORDS COMING SOON! (03:31 GMT)***
Here’s what I wrote prior to the 2023 Slam Dunk Contest….
Perhaps I am optimistic, but I have a feeling that tonight’s contest will be better than recent years -- I mean, they didn’t exactly set the bar very high. A hardcore NBA fan like myself has been a fan of Jericho Sims for years, however it’s important to bear in mind that to a casual fan the names on this year’s flyer are hardly likely to entice them to spend their Saturday night in front of the TV. Sims is currently the third string big-man on the Knicks. Mac McCLung, as talented as he is (and my favourite to win this year) wasn’t even on an NBA roster last season. Trey Murphy III can soar through the air, but if you’re watching a dunker from the New Orleans Pelicans, it’s only natural for fans to be disappointed that they aren’t seeing Zion Williamson. KJ Martin, despite his dad being an icon in 2000’s NBA history, is playing 26 minutes a night on a lowly 13-45 Houston Rockets team that’s sat at the bottom of the standings. An event that once featured the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter has turned into a spectacle that seemingly none of the top players want any part of. Why?
Many have pointed to LeBron James’ refusal to participate in the contest, despite saying he would do it in 2010, as the reason many modern stars have followed his lead and decided not to compete. We haven’t seen a current All-Star take part in the contest since DeAndre Jordan in 2017. However I think it’s unfair to blame the NBA’s all-time leading points scorer.
The three-point contest has replaced the dunk contest as the most anticipated Saturday night event during All-Star weekend. It draws in some of the league’s superstars and is stacked with talent. Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard are the big names who highlights this year’s event, and us the basketball purists, the rest of the field features guys like Kevin Huerter and Tyrese Haliburton amongst others. In recent years, even two of the greatest shooters of all-time - Steph Curry and Klay Thomson – have all also thrown their hat in the ring. So why has the three-point contest been able to attract top talent and the dunk contest hasn’t? For me, the answer is simple.
The format of the three-point contest is set. Players shoot racks of balls from various spots around the three-point arc, and although every year there is a twist such as a sponsored ultra-deep three or rack of money-balls, the premise remains the same: make the most buckets, win the contest. Simple.
The dunk contest on the other hand is subject to the decisions of judges who don’t have a set criteria when it comes to awarding scores. This means that there is no clear path to victory unlike in other sports such as gymnastics or figure skating which have defined things that judges look for. Many have laughed at the judges the NBA have brought in to decide the winner. The 2018 contest led to people like DJ Khaled (my hero), Chris Rock & Mark Wahlberg as judges, which led to fans clowning online as clearly they don’t have any experience in the field. Being a prolific dunker isn’t a requirement to judging a dunk contest in my opinion though, let’s look back at when Dwyane Wade was a judge of the contest in 2020. Wade showed a clear bias towards Derrick Jones Jr (who played for his Miami Heat) leading to him securing the win over Aaron Gordon. Gordon, who has pulled off the most technically difficult dunks in the history of the event, was once again robbed and has been left with nothing but a diss track about why he felt he deserved to win. Had he won, the reigning champ might have been back to defend his crown year after year, instead he now refuses to participate unless the fans vote him into the All-Star game itself – which, respectfully, he isn’t quite good enough to get in based on his play alone.
Speaking of fans brings me to my next point though. What’s the need for judges in an era where social media allows people to react instantly? Why can’t the NBA tweet or Instagram a poll after each dunk and give fans a few minutes to vote. This would lead to hundreds of thousands of interactions, and also keep fans more engaged. No one would be able to dispute the winner, as they would be by definition: the people’s champ.
So, are top players scared of losing, worried about bad judges, or is there not enough of an incentive to compete? When it comes to losing, unless you have a nightmare in which you can’t even make any of your dunks, no one will even remember the fact that you lost. If you were to adopt my proposition of fans voting, let’s be honest, popularity would weigh into the votes and a player like LeBron could win despite potentially not having the best dunks – but regardless, this would still be more fun than watching largely unknown players dunking. The main prize for this year’s winner is $100,000. The runner up gets $50,000 and third and fourth place both receive $20,000 each. Now although those figures seem mind-boggling for someone like you or I, for a player like Ja Morant who signed a $193,000,000 contract extension in 2022: this is pocket change. Ja himself said in 2021 that if you want to see him in the dunk contest, he needs $1,000,000 minimum. I have no doubt that a sponsor would pay that kind of money on the premise that there was an All-Star field of participants. I’ve seen how brands waste their budgets on things that don’t nearly draw as much attention as the dunk contest.
Sneaker companies are also missing a golden opportunity to showcase their newest technology in the dunk contest. The “AIR” Jordan concept was originally based around how he could fly though the air, so why do brands not use the contest to showcase new sneakers that are coming out that fans will want to wear to help their leaping abilities when playing basketball?
All factors considered, there is one real reason that the dunk contest is no longer as exciting as it once was. NBA players have become too good. They regularly throw down dunks during the course of games that previously would have scored them 50 during the dunk contest. Whether it’s a 360 or a windmill, it’s a lot more exciting to see these dunks during the flow of the game with an arena filled with fans showing their emotion. Put these same dunks into a staged contest with a run-up and countdown timer, they aren’t nearly as exciting. Moreover, the dunks that NBA fans like the best are “poster” dunks which involve humiliating an opponent by dunking over them. As much as I’d love to see a dunk contest include defenders trying to block dunks, there are far too many health and safety precautions to ever make this a possibility. Maybe Dana White will read this and try to start a “posterising” contest seeing as he started PowerSlap with no regard for the well-being of the competitors.
There is virtually no type of dunk that hasn’t been done yet. Think about it, what could a human possibly show us that we haven’t seen before? Maybe someone will surprise us tonight, but I can’t think of a dunk that would be possible. This has led to the success of dunks being judged on the props used. Whether it’s Blake Griffin dunking over a car (and the conspiracy that came along with the league’s official sponsor KIA being involved) or Gerald Green blowing out the candles on a cake, there really aren’t many dunk ideas left for players to carry out. Please don’t put on a throwback jersey and try to emulate a dunk we’ve already seen either. Zero marks for creativity. The expectations are far too high, and no matter what players do now, they’ll never be able to match them.
Add to all of these factors, slam dunking is now considered an art within itself and there are full-time professional dunkers who tour the world each month putting up dunks that far exceed anything you’ll see in the NBA’s slam dunk contest.
So who’s fault is it for ruining the dunk contest? LeBron for showing superstars it’s okay to avoid competing? Dwyane Wade for being a biased judge? The NBA for not incentivising participation enough? Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine for setting a standard that no one will be able to surpass? Maybe it’s a little bit of all of them.
So what’s the solution? Let fans vote for the scores players are awarded? Increase the prize pot to something meaningful? Just bring in professional dunkers to put on a better show than the bench players in the League can put on? I don’t have the answers. All I know is that I’m a basketball sicko and I will most definitely be glued to my tv regardless of the popular opinion that the contest is no longer what it once was.