“I ain’t doing that. Nah, I’m good.” VJ Edgecombe on competing in the 2026 NBA Dunk Contest.
They cant even get rookies to participate. It’s over.
All-Star weekend has been gone for a while. I can’t even remember the last one.
Wemby and Chris Paul cheating in the skills competition was the only memorable part
It turning out to be Wemby who came up with that exploit and not Chris Paul was the first indication of what a competitive psycho Wemby was
Wemby is already a villain but people don’t realize it yet. He’s one weird French attitude comment away from the toilet.
The greatest spurs tragedy since zaza!
I wouldn’t say cheating necessarily, just exploiting the rules. I wish they would’ve let them win
They let players exploit the rules in real games but during all star weekend they won’t allow any shenanigans.
The most Chris Paul moment ever
Tbf it was wemby.
But also, weren’t they technically correct? There was nothing stating they HAD to make an effort.
An official just couldn’t allow it?
They asked them if they could do it and they okay’d. When they actually saw them do it, they were like “nah cant be that”
Oh wow I didn’t realize they asked for permission first lol.
Holy shit, is this where the “ethical basketball” shade originated!?!
Steph dropping 16 3’s most of them 28 feet plus was legendary. I remember him getting Trae to bite on a pump fake at half court, he launches it and immediately turns back and looks at trae and smiles right as the ball left his hands and it swishes.
that’s the last one that I can remember also, mostly because of Curry’s insane sequence. I don’t remember when was it or anything about the next ones
It was the same year they won the last chip, 2022
For the best. I’ll never forgive the NBA for having Kevin Hart heckle the players midgame
Wade robbin’ AG
Agreed. That was one of the worst sports viewing experiences I’ve ever seen. I was physically uncomfortable with second hand embarrassment. Genuinely upset and wanting to turn it off as it just kept going. Insanity.
The year Kobe passed away was the best ASG in years. Sad they went back to what it isn
I don’t think playing into a basketball legends death every year is a good long term strategy for all star games though
you can pull a name out of a hat containing all living hall of famers, right before the game starts a ritual execution. idk i think this could work
They need to expand the 3 point contest. That is the most interesting event they have.
Lavine vs Gordon dunk contest
Its a sad time to be an NBA fan.
They should just do away with. Its no longer fun tk watch and obviously the younger generation don’t care to participate. At least not the big names because they’re trying to protect their brand.
All-Star weekends haven’t been about the actual competition for quite some time, it’s about the business side of things. Leagues need a planned out event in a location known well in advance to do sponsor activations, hold meetings with business partners, etc.
The NFL can do theirs during Super Bowl week, the other leagues don’t know where the championship is being played in advance.
The event isn’t the issue it’s the entitlement of the players
I’m not one to blame Lebron for everything we don’t like in the league today, but when it comes to the dunk contest specifically, him never participating was absolutely the downfall
They don’t wanna be circus acts they want to get paid properly for it
The winner of the dunk contest gets over $100k. Only slightly less than the all star game winners.
I mean they get to go on vacation which could also be more valuable to them
Then it’s not a money issue. But he’ll certainly be in the rookie sophomore game, so I don’t buy that either.
Mac McClung could stop playing and just make winning the dunk contest his yearly job
You mean he hasn’t already done this?
Yeah but if you do bad teenagers make fun of you on twitter
These dudes are already beyond set for life and paid way more than enough.
They already make millions of dollars tf more do they need
Won’t someone think of the poor ultra-rich multi millionaires?!!!
Yeah this is lame
Replace the dunk contest with an east vs west Mascot game.
Mascot slamball imo
Mascot dunk contest with trampoline
Benny the Bull will cement his GOAT status right next to MJ.
Lucky the leprechaun is just a dude wearing silly clothes. Hard to beat that level of mobility when you’re in a whole fursuit.
I honestly wish there was a full mascot suit for Lucky. It’d look way better imo
This is such a good idea that I can’t believe it hasn’t happened.
Like this.
hold on you’re onto something
Genuinely great idea
Give em a cash prize for the winning team
I mean……..
Nintendo hire the fans
Get rid of all star weekend
Oh he’ll yeah!
Hold up, keep cooking…
Might as well do that with the all-star game lol
The Dunk contest needs to be abolished. NBA players aren’t creative enough dunkers for anything to be a shock anymore and no star player ever wants to do it
It hasn’t moved the needle since those legendary Lavine/AG duels
They truly were the swan song
Even then that was a one-off. The years leading up to that contest and the ones after were all pretty bad.
adam silver just has to replace it with a 1 on 1 tournament and it’ll be so much better
Would player egos even want this? I feel like players would duck this harder than the dunk competition.
Fuck no they don’t wanna deal with that shit, social media has amplified the voice of every asshat; I mean, a player could have just won Finals MVP and all they would still hear about is how they got cooked 1 on 1 at an All Star Game lmao
the answer to that is a resounding no in 2026
I don’t know why but I have a feeling that KD would be locked in. But probably just projecting my NBA fandom and in reality he doesn’t want to get injured lmao.
The one adjustment to make it almost injury-averse is if its something like 2 or 3 dribble max. That way you get a chance to do 2 moves max (maybe 3), and half end up just being pump-fakes + three-attempts.
Yea people aren’t understanding this
1v1 is a much different game than team basketball, we would be seeing star players (if they signed up) getting cooked by nobodies
A 3v3 tournament at best.
I don’t really care if a star gets fried by some random, I just want to see these guys play ones.
Even watching a mini tourney with BI, Pritchard, grimes, and Jaime Jaques would be cool.
yup this has always been my thoughts if the league had some type of 1v1 tournament. i’d truly love to see roll players go at one another.
A lot of these events need star power to be sustainable, there’s a reason the dunk contest started falling off after Vince and Kobe and it was just ‘randoms’ with vert, all stars at least
Payton Pritchard would probably do it lol
Only way is if Ant talked shit and called out certain guys
Definitely not. Star players that do bad in the games get shit on hard enough like JB did in the dunk contest, and I think Julius Randle when he had a bad 3 pt contest outing; now imagine if you get your ankles broke, dunked on, or just get smoked like 11-3 in a 1 v 1.
The slander, memes, screen-shots, and overall damage to your aura would be career-altering.
If stars aren’t interested in the dunk contest, I don’t see them being interested in 1v1.
i don’t even need stars in it i’d rather watch fucking dlo vs nic claxton than watch the dunk contest
Eh it would widen the player pool so maybe u’d find stars that wanna do it. The other women’s pro league did something similar and it was fun to watch
If it’s gonna just be role players doing it anyways, I’d much rather watch 1v1 instead of a dunk contest.
Dodge ball: Players vs Referees
Everyone is wearing ski masks so you can’t tell who’s who. You don’t need to be an all-star to participate. Refs team has more players to compensate for athletic disadvantage.
I’d watch this to see Scott Foster get hit in the balls as much as possible
No one would compete in that either. No one competes in the all star game.
On the women’s side the 3v3 off season league did this and it brought them their highest ratings. However the bigger name stars mostly declined to participate (the exceptions being the two players who helped found the 3v3 league).
HORSE tournament
Didn’t they already try that?
You’re right, I can’t believe I forgot about this classic
KD and Rondo taking turns taking practice shots at the top of the arc while Chuck keeps laughing about TNT freaking out over the delayed commercial break
I’d watch a pros versus joes game
We know damn well nobody noteworthy would participate in a 1v1 tournament even if they have money involved. Too much to lose for them with nothing to gain
I think there was always going to be a “limit” to how creative dunks could get, and we’ve pretty much gotten there. They’re in the air for a couple seconds - that’s not much time to squeeze in something no one’s ever seen before. We still see a cool dunk every now and then, but the vast majority of them are boring now whereas they might’ve been cool like 10-20 years ago. There are those “professional dunkers” guys that do some insane shit, but they practice dunking like all the time. NBA players have to practice… you know, basketball.
At a certain point it stops being basketball and turns into gymnastics. Why is an nba player practicing all these crazy dunk moves that have barely anything to do with the game and risk injuring themselves?
The only time I’ve seen a dunk injury outside of game is that one fan who tore his acl
I still want to see a star player do a windmill. Who gives a F if I’ve seen it before. I haven’t seen Lebron do it in a contest.
Dunk contest should be street hoopers given invited to show off
People complained about Matt McClung doing it because he isn’t a real NBA player despite having some insane dunks. I don’t think they will like street hoopers either.
Yeah I feel like both just miss the point.
Like it’s literally during an event called “all-star weekend” and people are supposed to get excited about Mac McClung?
I don’t care what it gets replaced with, but it should be something that actually involves the all-star level players. Or at least players who are in the top 6 of their team’s rotation.
Nobody is watching randos lol YouTube exists
I’d even go for an epic game of knockout with like 20 players. Last man standing wins
The Dunk contest All-Star Weekend needs to be abolished.
Does anyone genuinely enjoy a single aspect of the weekend anymore? When I was a kid it felt like Titans were competing against one another. Shaq and Penny Hardaway joining forces with MJ and Pippen with Reggie in the back? Shit felt like the Avengers.
Now it feels like you got these players doing a relaxing scrimmage on their day off. It’s like when Adam Sandler makes a movie just so he and his actor friends can take a vacation on some studio’s dime.
3 point shootout is still enjoyable. Seeing sharp shooters against the clock is always neat.
It’s gotta be because social media flaming folks for simply losing elite level competitions. No one wants to possibly be made a laughing stock online for free. Nothing to gain from it anymore
Man, Dominique Wilkins was doing the same dunk for a decade. All these guys have to do is try.
Gordon & Lavine was peak
completely backwards
a bunch of fat fans who can’t even touch rim are no longer excited seeing a 360 windmill
the NBA needs to randomly pick a fan from all 30 fan bases to try to simultaneously recreate the dunks being performed by the contestants
They need to get rid of all-star weekend altogether. They don’t care, we don’t care. Give them 3 days off and get back to work like it used to be back before LeBron and DWade pressured Silver to change it
yeah, the prestige of the dunk contest is done for. Go ahead and try to find a replacement event or, if you want to force the top players to do it, do it like the original all star game where half time of athe actual all star game is the dunk contest.
But where would this leave time for Kevin Hart and Mr. Beast?
I’d watch at least 5 minutes of Mr beast trying to dunk and falling on his face
1 on 1 basketball 🔥
I would love this but people would abuse its purpose just to back up player ranking convos, so hard.
None of the players worth conversing about would do it.
People are gonna do that regardless. It doesn’t really matter on the ground though. This subreddit is already insufferable with most responses being trolling, repeating the same 4 or 5 hot takes, shitting on some players something.
1 on 1 basketball would be actual fire if players willingly participated and didn’t shy away cause it might make them look bad or whatever.
Your last sentence shows exactly why 1V1 won’t happen unfortunately.
People play hard during the NBA cup for a million dollars. Seems like there is an easy fix here
Damn shame when you had all time greats in it and its been reduced to backups and G Leaguers.
And ringers.
Almost misread that one
Lebron never doing it did this
swear ppl want 40 year old bron to do it more than someone like anthony edwards
Its become a corny show for advertisers and gimmicks, when it was just dunks it was impressive when they started having ads cars, and not giving aaron gordon the win it failed.
This. The dunk contest lost all credibility because of Wade. Nobody wants to participate in a contest they could clearly win but lose anyway.
I think he’s more of an Ant & Bron type dunker. Great at making regular dunks look amazing. But when it comes to flashy dunks, it’s difficult
people are now able to see clips of high schoolers doing crazy dunks on social media at any given time, this was inevitable
That’s a solid take. One I haven’t considered before.
Exactly most of these players are in game dunkers. I seen a high schooler do an under both legs dunk in a game. Crazy dunks don’t wow people anymore, only those YouTuber dunkers got the creativity for it.
We’ve been able to do that since the 2000s but that didn’t stop people from watching Aaron Gordon, I’m not buying that’s the reason.
A lot of these players just don’t have the same competitiveness of the past and aren’t participating or trying as hard for these events.
Yeah as an old head it saddens me that my generation doesn’t understand the impact of the internet age. You aren’t going to see something you haven’t seen before.
We have access to people of all races, genders etc dunking all over the world. There’s like , girls in hijabs doing windmills and shit. The NBA can’t match that.
3 on 3 tourney might be fun at this point, just abolish ice i mean abolish the all star game.
3 on 3 might gain some traction with players. No way they’ll agree to 1 vs 1 and risk getting embarrassed when they can’t actually stop anybody
No you said it right the first time
When LeBron refused to do it it set the tone for rest of guys not to
LeBron doing the contest definitely would have motivated these kids to compete in it no doubt.
Y’all gotta stop with this Lebron shit. One minute people saying the young guys don’t care about his game, the next his word is god.
Nobody cares about the dunk contest because we seen it all already. The young boys know that which is why they don’t care.
Yup, completely cooked it and there’s no going back.
wait so the rest of the NBA not grown ass adults who has agency and can think for themselves? I guess not so they must be following daddy Bron on everything he does.
This is more of a diss on the rest of the NBA than on Bron you know that right?
I remember being so hype for all star weekend 15 years ago. Hell even 10. Now I don’t even watch.
I’lll watch 3 minutes of clips posted to reddit the Monday morning after and thats the entire entertainment value of the event for me.
But the nba is a highlight sport so that’s what they want….. right?
I’m sure VJ has his own reasons, but that reaction is still pretty weird. A lot of other young athletic players react the same way. I’m just glad Castle didn’t shy away from it and put on a show last year.
They should ask Wemby. Tell him Chet is doing it. They’re not the typical candidate but gotta bring life back into this contest somehow.
Wemby competing out of spite would be so on brand.
His new nickname should be Victor “anything you can do, I can do better” Wembanyama
Wemby has said before “It’s on my bucket list”.
He could easily go out there and have Tony Parker and Ginobili throw him lobs.
I think that at this point there such a precedent of elite players not participating that it almost is seen as minor league stuff that top players shouldn’t concern themselves with. Sad that we’ve reached this point
The entire All-Star weekend needs to be scratched. Fans hate it, players don’t give a shit about it, advertisers aren’t into it as much because the ratings blow.
Just blow it up and figure something else out. Kevin Hart is not going to move the needle, NBA.
I completely agree, this should have been done years ago tbh.
They just need to apply the same lesson they learned from the mid season cup games to allstar weekend. Nobody thought players would give a shit but it genuinely has playoff energy with dudes trying their ass off to get their bench guys a payday.
Restructure it to be every team votes and sends 2 players to the weekend to compete in different events that earn the whole team money or something
If they want it to matter, make it determine home court advantage for the finals like baseball used to do.
That’s sad, man. I like the dunk contest.
Then YOU do it
That’s a great idea. I would very willingly go and be the sacrifice for the league so everyone else’s dunks look way more impressive as I come in with a rim grazer and no theatrics
Last year was a good example of why i reckon a lot of players don’t wanna do it. Castle did some crazy dunks but lost because mcclung uses props and gimmicks. I really don’t think too many players with nba schedules can be bothered coming up with and practicing prop dunks that haven’t been done yet.
Exactly stars aren’t gonna be taking time out of their day to practice jumping over people/props.
booooo
Adam Silver has lost control of the league.
I’m not saying you can force players to do anything but when players don’t wanna play 82 games, don’t want to participate in fan events and give half ass effort during the ASG (and regular games) then you gotta make change to keep the audience happy.
lame af
He an in game dunker. They lost everyone when they gave it to Zach Lavine that one year tho.
Honestly Zach was really good, I didn’t even mind that.
DJJ over AG because DWade was being a Heat homer was the nail on the coffin.
What is the ‘inside’ reason these guys wouldn’t even think of doing this now? It used to be one of the most captivating things for both players and fans.
I think players view is as lame tbh. And there’s no prestige. Especially since there hasn’t been any notable stars to participate in the 2020s
These kids thinking they’re too cool for the dunk contest is crazy. The games gone.
Make the players play HORSE against each other or something lol
I swear they tried that before for a couple of years
Yeah they did. And the players just stood around and shot jump shots.
I remember KD won it the first year they did it just by knocking down deep threes consistently.
Prime Steph would probably be the horse goat. Even if they made it so he couldn’t score on the same type of shot two times in a row so he doesn’t spam logo threes, Steph is one of the best circus shot makers I’ve ever seen.
Time to try something new Adam
Being healthy for the season takes priority over some shite game which doesn’t matter
Because all these guys are afraid to look bad.
What a shit answer to the second question lol
I think the long term solution is to do away with all star weekend until people feel nostalgic for it and bring it back. Like a Disney franchise lol
This sport is so fucking embarrassing that the players are too lazy/ entitled to put some a show for the fans did what? Half an hour?
The league is so soft.
Too much injury risk for too little reward. Plus it’s all been done. Just let it go, it was a fun event but it’s over.
people keep saying this. but who was ever injured in the dunk contest
Replace the dunk contest with mascots vs. some middle/maybe high schoolers
I would be completely fine if they scrapped the All Star game and all the activities surrounding it. The players view it as a joke that they’re obligated to participate in and they straight up boycott things like the dunk contest because they’re too worried about what will be clipped and put on social media. Just do away with it all.
Divas. Every last one of em.
Nobody wants to risk embarrassing themselves
Just get rid of it atp. If you can’t even get the most athletic young guys like Sharpe or VJ to do it now and or Ja/Zion few years ago there’s just no point.
I blame D Wade. He ruined the dunk contest.
Smart kid.
Dunk Contest has lost its charm for like 20 years
Honestly, what dunks can they even do that would impress? Feels like everything has been done at this point
Can we just replace the dunk contest with LeBron, Steph, and KD playing horse or something
Me when I’m asked if I wanna work on Saturday
Dude said it with disgust too. What happened to make it such a hated event for players?
Mans can’t even dunk
On a $50 mil contract and can’t throw down 4 dunks for the fans, these new gen players are something else man
Yeah league is in bad hands
VJ’s such a good kid, can’t even be mad at him
Can’t even get rookies interested anymore. All Star weekend nowadays is an absolute joke
Stop badgering VJ!
Most NBA players are just in game dunkers and the money is waay to big now for them to risk injury taking a dunk contest seriously.
Let these guys that go viral doing insane dunks compete for a sum of money. It’d be much more entertaining than what we’ve seen lately.
Replace the dunk contest with draft class battles. Take the best 3 from different years and put them in a tournament. I was gonna say take the best 3 from different teams but I like this better
Dump every competition and make a 1 v 1 tournament
It’s probably just not worth the stress anymore tbh. Like 30 years ago you could do a between the legs windmill and you did a good job. Now if you don’t jump between a ring on fire, the internet roasts you. I don’t blame them.
HORSE or PIG would be waaaaay more fun to watch and would still include a lot of dunks
Yeah let’s just get rid of the dunk contest. Anymore all these dudes care about is their brand. Just replace it with a 1 on 1 and the three point contest. I don’t even need a all-star game anymore if they only gonna play half ass
The Gordon fiasco turned.players and the public agsinst.thr contest. I have not watched it since.
There’s IG videos of no name dudes pulling off more spectacular dunks then the dunk contest has ever seen. On top of that, you’re not even guaranteed the win with the best dunk depending on who the judges are. Why bother?
The only thing I ever take away from these discussions is that most of r/nba is incredibly weird and entitled. No these dudes are not obligated to entertain you with stupid dunks in a meaningless competition. This shit is played out and the only people crying about it are the weirdos that are slaves to nostalgia.
Don’t get me wrong. LeBron is definitely Top 3 all time no matter the conversation, and has done amazing things both on and off the court… But we all have to take into account the bad marks he left on the NBA too. Not competing (hard) at All-Star weekend and the flopping. All these kids think it’s ok, and it’s honestly not.