What Went Wrong With The Dunk Contest

The NBA dunk contest this year was trash...but why? What’s happened to the NBA’s best event? #NBA #Dunk
Gaming/Streaming- @MJPLAYSALLDAY
Twitter- @MJ2KALLDAY

This year’s dunk contest was bad, so bad that “trash” was trending.

And it wasn’t always like this, it really wasn’t. I remember when the dunk contest used to be the best part of Saturday on All-Star weekend, where we would see some of the most crazy sets, highest leapers, stars showing out, and the reactions, all in one place. Now I can bring up 2016, just...wow man. LaVine and Gordon were going dunk for dunk on first attempt or they weren’t getting a 50.

It’s not just this year. Last year also wasn’t great, to the point where zero dunks got a 50 in these past 2 straight dunk contests. But this has been issue for a while and why the 3 point contest has become the main attraction on Saturday. I just want to get back to even this.

Man Jalen Green put on an NFT and then was trash , and I actually like some NFTs, the useful ones, not just jpegs or highlights of you missing. Now the dunk contest may not matter that much in terms of actual winning, but it’s a spectacle that has always brought out so much excitement in NBA fans that this needs to be addressed and why I went back through about 30 years of dunk contests for this video.

The dunk contest is all about hype, storyline, and athleticism. And part of all three are the players that actually participate in the dunk contest. The most successful contests were built around contestants who were either a star in the league, popular fan favorite, an exciting young player or an outright insane vertical dunker. Sometimes you get all three in one player like Jordan and Dominique in 1988. Jordan could jump out of the gym, was a star in the league, and fans wanted more.

Zach Lavine in his first dunk contest wasn’t a star, but everyone knew that his vert was high. Man could float. But even go back 10 years and you’ll get into Blake Griffin, a young star and known high flyer jumping over a car, super iconic, Javale dunking two basketballs in 2 hoops, Nate Robinson who’s known for jumping high despite both jumping over Dwight Howard, superstar and contestant.

So let’s look at the contestants for this year. Jalen Green, the young player, not necessarily known for dunking, but more the hesi tween tween bag . Juan Toscano-Anderson most known for his split action on the Warriors... He can dunk, but there are better dunkers, Cole Anthony who again can dunk, and Obi Toppin who is the dunker of the group, but again not really hyped. There wasn’t an exciting player for the fans to tune into.

We can look at 2021. Cassius Stanley was the exciting dunker though he hadn’t shown too much in the league. Obi Toppin the young exciting player and Afernee Simmons an athletic guard.

But players have become increasingly less willing to participate. We all know that Ja Morant, Miles Bridges, Anthony Edwards, Zach, Giannis, Kuminga, all would have been more exciting for all fans, but none were in it. It’s almost like they feel like they have more to lose. **The NBA needs to incentivize players to join whether it’s a prize, donations to charity, something.**

Excitement is a huge part of the dunk contest and if there’s no one to be excite about, then even the reactions by the crew, the judges, the MC, and even the crowd just won’t get into it. The 2022 dunk contest broadcast had the crowd audio sort of muted so even through the TV, you couldn’t feel the hype.

Going back to creativity, yes a lot of dunks have been done. But players have also done what other players did, dunks that we thought were amazing and difficult to do. We’ve seen between the legs before but doing it with more power, more hops, off the catch, it doesn’t get old when you do a really difficult dunk really well. For example Zach Lavine doing a free throw line dunk doesn’t seem any less impressive than when Jordan did it. And Donovan put on a Carter jersey to do Carter’s 360 windmill. It’s still amazing and exciting to do stuff we didn’t think other players could do.

There’s this list of ranking all the dunks in dunk contests that got a perfect 50. I went through every single one and there’s a lot of overlap, even in the early 200s, through 2010s. But they are good, even when the judging system got a little broken in 2020 with 10 50s dunks. Point, creativity helps like Pat Connaughton’s dunk, Derrick Jones off the backboard between the legs, but if you can generate hype and do an insane dunk on first or second try, that’s all you need. **So NBA make sure you get guys that are the best dunkers in the league and stars cause we need the dunk contest to come back. A.k.a get Ja. Simple. But what do you think? What should the NBA do to revive the dunk contest?**

Видео What Went Wrong With The Dunk Contest канала MJ2KALLDAY