Dunk Contest Lacks Stars, Creativity

On a night when the only words coming out of Flo Rida’s mouth were the words “Putcho hands up!” there was never any reason to follow those instructions. The Sprite Slam Dunk Contest was, quite possibly, the worst one since the event had become a part of All-Star weekend. Chase Budinger, Jeremy Evans, Paul George, and Derrick Williams were a disappointment to an otherwise exciting event.

First off, regardless of who participates, the commentary before each dunk needs to stop. I love listening to Kenny Smith on TNT but we’re not watching a game at Rucker Park. We don’t want to hear the trash talk or hear the contestants explain what they’re about to do because that takes away from the surprise of each dunk.

Furthermore, the dunks themselves were mediocre. Now let’s get this straight, I’m a 6’3 white kid that can’t dunk, so I know I have no room to judge anyone on a personal basis. However, after watching guys like Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin the past few years, this year’s contestants brought the standard down a few notches. Jeremy Evans first dunk was, in a word, lame. Lobbing the ball up and simply putting it down two-handed is something you could see in a real game. It was even worse when he kept hanging on the rim in an attempt to make it look cooler. Later in that round, Derrick Williams did have a pretty impressive windmill over a motorcycle, but Chase Budinger kind of ruined it by repeating that same dunk except he didn’t have the motorcycle. Now I will give credit where credit is due; Jeremy Evans dunk over Gordon Hayward was absolutely nasty. It was original, the degree of difficulty was through the roof, and it was something few guys could do. That’s the kind of dunks we all wanted to see consistently.

My last complaint with the Dunk Contest is the voting. I don’t like that the fans are in charge of voting now because it becomes a popularity contest. It’s following the same lines as the All-Star voting by voting in guys that, as long as they have achieved the All-Star status, are automatically voted in. Who could forget a few years back when Yao Ming played half of the season before the All-Star break and he was voted in. I wish they would have judges or a committee because then we know that the most deserving players are rewarded.

I’m a fan of the dunk contest; I look forward to it every year. However, this year was poor. I liked the P Diddy dunk that Budinger did, the glow-in-the-dark dunk by George, and the dunk over Hayward by Evans. I hope some of the stars come back next year to participate much like Dominique and MJ did year in and year out. I’m not sure I could take another year like this one.