Is the slam dunk contest dead?
Used to be, the best thing about NBA All-Star Weekend was the dunk contest.
No more.
The dunk contest last weekend was a dud. Nate Robinson won the title for the third time, and while it was cool to see the diminutive dude throw down the first time, the excitement is gone now. And it’s not just because of Robinson. He’s the last guy to blame for this.
Some say that the problem with the dunk contest is a lack of stars. While it’s true that it’d be fun to see LeBron and D-Wade and Dwight Howard and Kobe go after it, the problem with the dunk contest isn’t so much the lacking starpower. It’s the lacking creativity.
No more are we wowed by feats of athletic prowess. The players have ruined us by doing amazing things every night during games. We’ve seen the power. We’ve seen the leaping. None of it gets us going.
But seeing a guy slap a sticker of his face on the backboard? Or watching someone blow out a candle on a cupcake put on the rim? Or having a guy wear a Superman get up? That’s the kind of thing that makes the slam dunk contest great now.
The creativity is dead, and so is the slam dunk contest.
If the NBA is serious about resituating it, it has to take action. The best players need to be involved because if you get a bunch of the top guys in the business in the contest, they’re more likely to bring their A games. They’re not going to just go out there and try to come up with something on the fly. They’re going to plan and scheme and come up with some great stuff.
The NBA could mandate that the top vote-getter in the All-Star balloting must compete in the slam dunk contest if invited. Or it could mandate that for the top two or three overall vote-getters.
That might seem to be a big change, but if the NBA doesn’t do something serious, something drastic, one of its marquee events will be gone for good.
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Comments
I think a good idea wud b to invite about 10 players to come up with two dunks each only that gives them a chance to practice them specific dunks and come up with something special best total score wins it their is no point in having a round system if the player are going to do the same dunk over again id rather see two very good dunks each rather than a lot of mediocre ones
The slam-dunk contest, along with its misbegotten twin, baseball’s home-run derby, can go the way of the Dodo Bird as far as I’m concerned.
In order for the contest to bring back the joy and excitment it once had, the variables from the past contests must also return. For one, there are not enough participants, secondly there is too much break time between dunks resulting to the “yawns”, thirdly we dont need dunkers to enter the contest from a phone booth or some crazy prop, just go out there and dunk. The NBA itself has become a contest of self-showboating- nobody wants to see a player come on court and dance and act the fool, just go out and show case your b-ball talent. And finally, why dont the fans have a say in who gets to dunk?? Of the 4 contestants who dunked during the last competition, i can guarantee there is not one fan out there who would have voted any of those guys in w/ the exception of Nate Robinson being the prev dunk champ.