No Longer A Slam Dunk

The NBA Slam Dunk contest has seen better days. It is an event desperately seeking an all-star. As someone who previously has covered the All-Star Weekend, I know from experience—and, of course, common sense—that the entire event is built around big-name NBA stars. Believe me, they are falling from the rafters. You can’t walk three feet without tripping over one.

Yet, on Saturday night, a remarkable happened. Everyone who is anyone in the NBA had descended upon Orlando, but for some reason, there was not a star in sight when it came time to put on the Slam Dunk contest. In fact, the winner wasn’t Superman or King James or the Black Mamba. This year’s Slam Dunk contest winner was the Human Pogo Stick, aka Utah’s Jeremy Evans.

Don’t get me wrong, there were NBA stars everywhere, from all generations. Dwight Howard had a front-row seat, Cedric Ceballos gave dunking lessons to one of the contestants and Dominique Wilkins could be seen smiling and laughing on the sidelines. Big-name stars were on the sidelines, granting interviews and even conducting interviews, but when it mattered most, on the court and above the rim, they were nowhere to be found.

The best the NBA could put forth was Houston’s Chase Budinger, Indiana’s Paul George, Minnesota’s Derrick Williams and Utah’s Evans.

Last year, fans witnessed the likes of Blake Griffin jumping over a car; this year, fans were given Williams jumping over a motorcycle. Some might say this is a huge leap backward for the NBA (although, dunking over a motorcycle is quite impressive in my book). But even Griffin was pitted against another ho-hum list of competitors in Washington’s JaVale McGee, Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka.

So, has the NBA Slam Dunk contest become obsolete?

Has it gone the way of the NFL’s Pro Bowl, now considered an afterthought that many of its stars avoid like the plague?

Or has it gone the way of Major League Baseball before the All-Star break?

How about Game 1 of any series—MLB, NBA or NHL?

Or my personal favorite (read: least favorite), preseason football.

On Saturday night, as I sat watching the contest, I couldn’t help but wonder: Who are these guys? And I wasn’t the only one. TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley jokingly commented several times throughout the broadcast: “You need to keep putting up those photos and those names so America will know who they are voting for.”

To be honest, the contest was pretty entertaining, even without the big names. There were dunks over the heads of NBA players (Dahntay Jones and Roy Hibbert) and hip-hop moguls (P. Diddy). There were two-ball dunks (Evans), dunks over motorcycles (Williams), blind-folded dunks (Budinger) and glow-in-the-dark dunks (George). There were even dunks paying tribute to NBA greats Larry Bird and Karl Malone.

While the diehard fans will probably continue to tune in, the casual fans may need more of a draw. And we all know that the All-Star Weekend is about casting the widest of nets. It’s not too late for the NBA to fix the slam dunk contest. The league only needs to look as far as the front row on All-Star Saturday night for a solution.