Welcome Back NBA Dunk Contest
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Practicing for the 2025 dunk contest
This past Saturday, I witnessed one of the greatest dunk contests I have ever seen. The dunk contest has fallen pretty far the past decade. It was long and boring. Contestants got as many tries as they needed, dragging the contest past the two hour mark, easily. The contestants weren't that good either. Sure, you'd get a Blake Griffin, although I think he's very overrated, or a John Wall or even a Dwight Howard, but for the most part, we got guys like Nate Robinson and Terrence Ross. These guys are all phenomenal athletes and freakishly athletic, but we didn't get the stars that the fans wanted.
Back in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's, we got the biggest stars to compete in the dunk contest. Guys like Larry Nance, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter, just to name a few, regularly competed in the dunk contest. Those were some of the best competitions. The coin flip showdown between Jordan and Dominique was so, so incredible, even though Dominique got totally screwed out of the win. When Dr. J was in the contest, he was doing things no one at the time was doing. I didn't see that one live, obviously, but the videos of his dunks are awesome. When Larry Nance was in, he looked like he was floating through the air. It was majestic. Then, in 2000, I witnessed what I consider to be the greatest dunk contest ever. I don't remember the other contestants, but I sure as hell remember Vince Carter. He did some of the most incredible, mouth agape dunks I'd ever seen. The "hand in the cookie jar dunk", going between his legs on a bounce pass, throwing it off the side of the backboard, I mean, it was just insanely athletic and so impressive. I remember sharing his sentiment, after doing the windmill off the side of the backboard, that the contest was over. You could see him mouthing the words, "it's over", and he was 100 percent correct. He absolutely dominated that dunk contest. The fact that I don't even remember his competitors shows you how incredible his dunks were. After that contest, I was sure that the dunk contest was going to be as great every year. I was very wrong.
The All Star weekend dunk contest became boring, as I said before. Too long and no stars. Some will tell me that the Blake Griffin contest, when he dunked over a car, was exciting. I say you are wrong. Who cares that he jumped over a car. It would've been impressive if he dunked over the top of the car, but he went over the front hood. I bet the majority of NBA players can do that exact dunk with no problem. The Blake Griffin hype was at it's peak then, and his dunk was way overblown. Like I said, he is overrated. Some will also throw out the Nate Robinson back to back wins, but those were incredibly boring and his dunks were not even close to what Spud Webb did when he won. Spud Webb only had three chances to do his dunks. I believe that Nate Robinson, whom I enjoy, went on for almost thirty minutes before throwing down one impressive dunk. He had unlimited time and attempts. You give any NBA player that much time, they will come up with something great. Other people may even think that the Dwight Howard win was impressive, but he barely did anything. Also, he's a 7 footer, he better damn well do something impressive. But, he didn't really do anything impressive at all, unless you count wearing a Superman cape as impressive, I don't. So, yeah, the dunk contest was in a real rut.
Last season Zach Lavine of the Minnesota Timberwolves, made it kind of exciting. The pool of contestants still wasn't that good, but the highlights the next day of what Lavine did had me and a lot of others intrigued. He did some really cool stuff that kind of hearkened back to the good old days of the contest. Then came this past Saturday night. The contestants, once again, weren't household names, but two of the four are big time jumpers. Hardcore fans of the NBA know all the contestants and know that Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon are world class leapers. They can "jump out of the gym". The other two contestants, Will Barton and Andre Drummond are decent athletes too. Barton is a freakishly good jumper. No one knows him because he plays very sporadically on a pretty bad Denver Nuggets team, but he can jump. Andre Drummond is an All Star, but he's not known for his dunking ability. He's a rebounder and defender. Both Barton and Drummond failed to impress, but Barton not doing well was the only shock to me. Drummond didn't belong in this contest. Then, Lavine and Gordon owned the rest of the night. Aaron Gordon went first and his first attempt was awesome. He soared through the air and completed a bounce pass between the legs windmill. It was awesome. Then, Zach Lavine did a 360 windmill, behind the back reverse dunk. It was something I'd never seen before and I was hooked. They traded one awesome dunk after another. Gordon brought out the Magic mascot and did a between the legs grab off the mascot's head dunk. Awesome. Lavine then proceeded to catch an alley oop from the free throw line dunk. Phenomenal. Then, Aaron Gordon did the best dunk I'd seen since Vince Carter. Using his mascot again, he took the ball off his head again, but then he put the ball underneath his legs and reverse slammed the ball. It was the best dunk I have ever seen. Go watch it right now, it is so cool. Then, Lavine did some more stuff from the free throw line, including a windmill from the free throw line. That takes so much leaping ability and so much athleticism and Lavine made it look easy. The two of them traded 50's from there on out, until Lavine finally won in a dunk off. Watch the whole duel, it is awesome.
This was the best dunk contest since 2000 and probably the best dunk contest of all time. Aaron Gordon and Zach Lavine brought it back from the dead. The dunk contest was appointment TV when I was a teenager, then it was really bad for a decade plus, but if it continues to be anywhere close to where Saturday night was in the future, I will be in front of my TV every All Star weekend to see the dunk contest. It was that awesome.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once saw the head editor to an epic double jump dunk. It is a slam dunk to follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.