It’s a discussion that’s becoming more and more relevant each year as the ratings go from a 10 to a 9 to an 8 to a who-knows-what-it-is now for the dunk contest. What should we do with it? Should we scrap it entirely? If we don’t, how do we bring back the entertainment and showmanship that made the dunk contest so popular in the Jordan era? Here’s an idea.
Fans always hear Lebron James mull over taking part in the dunk contest each year, only to receive the same answer when the time comes. He’s not doing it. What about the other stars? Fewer and fewer are willing to take part as the years go by. Even Paul George and Kevin Durant have admitted in the past week that the dunk contest needs more star power, and when you look back to when the dunk contest was a real show, we see how true that really is. The famous dunk contest in 2000 had star representatives such as Vince Carter, Steve Francis, and Tracy McGrady. The ones coming after that had young stars such as Desmond Mason and Jason Richardson, and these all come after the glory days of Michael vs. ‘Nique and friends like Larry Nance. Those were real dunk contests, and the biggest difference you’ll notice is that those guys never needed any props. Nobody needed to dunk over other people or to dunk over cars or bring in celebrities to make some kind of dunk story with each attempt. No, it was pure athleticism and creativity at its finest, working together to give birth to iconic moments in basketball history. And frankly, those moments are iconic because they are done by the recognized stars of the era. So first of all, the dunk contest needs our current stars to participate.
But the big question is, how do we get those guys to participate? And how do we get them to focus on their raw, athletic ability and participate without using ridiculous props? What if we took the contestants from the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown and let them take part in the main event? What if it became a competition between the Showdown contestants and the NBA stars? It’d be a real twist of lemon-and-lime that I think would really entice the stars to compete. We already know how crazy the dunks have been from the Slam Dunk Showdown. Those guys practice dunking on a daily basis. And we know how competitive the NBA stars are. It’s how they made it to the NBA in the first place. So if the dunk contest became a place where their reputations as some of the best athletes in the world are being threatened, you can bet your 10’s that they’re going to come and try to get a score of 50. The best dunkers in the world vs. the best basketball players in the world. Now that would make for a real show. Let’s hope the NBA really does bring the next big thing.