The NBA slam dunk contest is a celebration of airborne elegance and strength
As this is blog series an attempt to elaborate on the history of dunking with as much details and information as possible, this part will center on something briefly mentioned in the introduction – and that is the slam dunk contest.
A party for dunkers
This celebration of airborne elegance and strength was started by the great minds running the now defunct ABA league. Just one year later (during the 1976-77 season) the NBA tried on its own version of the event and it basically lasted all season long and included one representative from each team who then competed in one-on-one dunkoffs. Sounds fun, but it did not quite work out so it was discontinued. Oh yeah, the winner of that was Darnell “Dr. Dunk” Hillman.
NBA Slam dunk contest that we know of today and that takes place during the NBA All-Star weekend was introduced in 1984 and, interestingly enough, it happened in Denver (same city where the ABA introduced it). Another connection to the ABA days was Dr. J. who was not able to defend his ABA dunk champ crown since he lost to Larry Nance in the final round.
The following two years belonged to the Atlanta Hawks as Dominique Wilkins was the next winner (beating MJ in the finals). Interestingly enough, the “The Human Highlight Film” did not defend his title since he ended up losing to his teammate and shortest dunk contest winner ever – Spud Webb. He is listed as being 1.68 m tall!
In 1987, Jordan became the champion and then the first player ever to defend his title after an epic showdown with ‘Nique in Chicago. However, this was not without controversy, as many believe MJ benefited from home-court advantage and – friendly judges. Still, it is difficult to argue against his legendary free-throw line slam. Wilkins did manage to win once more in 1990 (Kenny Walker was the champ in 1989).
Next-gen of dunkers
The 1990s were at best decent years for the event with some memorable dunks and winners (Dee Brown, Cedric Ceballos, Harold Miner twice, Isaiah Rider, Brent Barry and Kobe Bryant). No contests were held in ’98 and ’99, but then came what many consider to be the best ever performance in 2000 by Half-Man, Half-Amazing a.k.a. Air Canada a.k.a. Vince Carter!
Perhaps this performance was so epic that the rest of this decade’s winners simply could not measure up to it (Desmond Mason, Jason Richardson, Fred Jones, Josh Smith, Nate Robinson, Gerald Green, Dwight Howard). A memorable and special member of this list is Nate Robinson who became the only player ever to win it all 3 times (2006, 2009, 2010).
The 2010s started off with a bang when Blake Griffin dunked over a car! It was a KIA Optima, and there is proof on the internet that one Michael Longa, an IT guy at a bank in Tulsa, still drives it after his grandfather gave it to him. He was a car dealer who bought it at a charity auction. Since we already have this digression, we’ll make another one and travel across the ocean to Slovenia, but not to talk about Luka Dončić because what we are doing is also a time travel of sorts. So, we’re going back to the Slovenian All-Star game in 1997 when Marko Milič also dunked over car in a way that was actually even more amazing than Blake’s slam.
Another standout from this period is two time winner Zach LaVine while among other winners are “big” names like John Wall and Donovan Mitchell and then Jeremy Evans, Terrence Ross, Glenn Robinson III and Hamidou Diallo. The next three winners (2020-2022) were: Derrick Jones Jr., Anfernee Simons and Obi Toppin.
Finally, the most recent edition and its winner were perhaps best described by Shaquille O’Neal who said that “Mac McClung saved the dunk contest” and many fans all around the world couldn’t agree more. In case you missed it, here is a recap:
The biggest snub of all time
Before moving on, it is absolutely necessary to mention at least one player who never won, but so many fans consider him a champion nonetheless. It’s Aaron Gordon and after he narrowly lost at one of the most exciting head-to-head matchups against Zach LaVine in Toronto (2016) many think he was straight up robbed of the title in Chicago (2020).
If you don’t know the whole story and you don’t feel like checking it all out on YouTube, here is a crazy piece of information for you: AG has more perfect, 50-point dunks than any other player in NBA history. He has 8, and that is pretty damn impressive!
Part 3 is coming soon and it will turn up the heat because we’ll focus on in game dunks and those who delivered them most brutally and with the most aesthetic grace!