Take me back to the golden days of the Dunk Contest
This dunk contest was incredible, but those werent golden days because it was generally trash for years leading up to this
It was a golden blip, but the best dunk contest I’ve ever seen.
This is how it’s always been lol. Does anyone remember Desmond Mason winning the year after Vince? Nope. And the two years prior to Vince were actually cancelled because it was so lame.
It’s always been that it sucks until one or two guys revive it temporarily and then it sucks again.
Hey put some respect on Desmond Mason’s name, dude could throw down.
Jason Richardson also
The only dunk contests I can remember are Vince, Jason Richardson, Nate and Dwight, and then the LaVine/Gordon one. That’s it.
Aside from that I remember specifically the Blake Griffin Kia dunk and the Gerald Green cupcake dunk, as well as some of the DeRozan dunks just because I’m a Raps fan. Maybe a couple more specific dunks here and there but nothing great. And the rest I just can’t remember because they were boring.
That’s fair enough, though the Vince one had a superb lineup, he just overwhelms everyone else. But T-Mac and Stevie Franchise had some superb dunks in that one also.
How you not remember any of MacClung’s 😂
He’s a good dunker but no one cares about him since he’s not even in the NBA. I’ve seen great YouTube dunkers better than MacClung and idc about them either.
What does that have to do with the dunk contest 😂😂
Im directly talking about the dunk contest?
Huh? Vince was certainly a pinnacle but desmond mason/Jason Richardson contests that came after were absolutely memorable.
I remember absolutely nothing about Desmond Masons dunk contest and I’m pretty sure 90% of the people who watched it are in the same boat as me.
I remember more of Fred Jones than Desmond Mason and I’m a Sonics fan.
zach was amazing those 2 years and ag made it competitive.
not saying everyone else was ass but i genuinely don’t remember anything interesting from anyone else except oladipo wearing a black panther mask.
Derrick Jones year was memorable, mostly for controversy though
Wat controversy
Is that when DWade favored him over AG since DJJ was a Heat player?
Yea the last 3 years with just Mac have actually been a solid stretch, and it coulda been 4 with what he released online. Longest consistent stretch I can remember.
The thing that people don’t mention is that Zach and Gordon had to like what 6 dunks in this instead of 4 ? It was almost like 1 1⁄2 contests in one
Nah, that’s lame as shit. The best dunks are the ones that you can do in a game on a breakaway, not with props or people standing with a ball. That’s not even basketball.
There was about a decade or more of Kenny Smith shouting “The Dunk Contest is back!”
Lavines reaction from the back was funny too…I really need to see the dunk from him after this one. I forgot what it was.
He did windmill from FT line after this one
One of the greatest slow motion dunks ever from the courtside camera. Just poetry.
The “am I bald” special
I have never seen this angle or Lavine’s reaction, thank you
Gordon got snubbed!
Edit: texting while driving drunk
Snubbed?
No, unfortunately after he lost this contest they euthanized him 😔
Yeh texting while driving. Even commentators said “Levine got a 50, but Gordon got a better 50”
Be careful lamelo
Gordon was robbed
He was robbed twice.
The Zach/AG one could’ve gone either way, I wouldn’t say he was robbed there. The Derrick Jones/AG one he was robbed for sure tho
Made me hate Wade more than those Bron squads and his Bulls saboteur season.
I’ll still argue that Gordon’s peak in that contest was better than LaVine’s, because the dunk in this clip is arguably the most memorable, impressive, and best contest dunk in 20 years… but I’m willing to accept the argument that LaVine’s body of work was better.
One of the weird times where it didn’t matter who won, everyone universally agrees that they both deserved it
Anyone that doesn’t bring up Vince Carter without the golden age of dunk contest…..
Came in to post this.
The NBA officially sought advice from VC lol.
Yessir, but that contest wasn’t even close. Vince had that in the bag from the get go. I also kind of miss the fact that there were more contestants so you would see more dunks.
That was also the era of the big man, vs the smallest guy who can jump. Nowadays we don’t even get Kevin Hart that pretends he can jump.
To be fair Tmac also had a couple of good ones that would’ve had him win any other medicore year.
Vince is literally the GOAT dunker though it’s hard to find anyone outside of maybe AG or Zach Lavine that put up dunks close to what he did.
“I done put my whole arm in the rim, Vince Carter”
Vince only did one
And ruined it forever.
The Golden Days was when star players participated
Lebron doesn’t get nearly enough heat for the current state of all star weekend. His refusal to do the dunk contest was a watershed moment…
His biggest damage to All star weekend isn’t not attending to the dunk contest. It’s his and Wade’s behavior in their sophomore team in the rising stars game. It is the exact moment the all star games stopped being competition between the best players and a become a joke.
I agree
The 03-04 dunk contest should have had Lebron in it
By that point, the big names were starting to not pay attention to the contest and if he had stepped up and done it, others would have followed
But Dwight did it after
LOL If Dwight Howard is someone you consider worthy of being called a superstar then you really must not watch basketball
But I am sure you will quote some stats to try and say otherwise
Ain’t nobody dreaming of being Dwight Howard when they are a kid.
Ain’t nobody asking for a Dwight Howard Jersey for christmas
There are really good players and there are stars
There is a difference
Maybe our definitions of superstar are different.
Pretty sure he on an island 😂
Dwight was top 5 in MVP voting that year and in the next 3 years finished top 5 in MVP voting three times and won DPOY 3 times. Led the league in rebounding and blocks twice. He was on the cover of SI twice in those years. He was the cover athlete of NBA Live in 2009. If Dwight wasn’t a star then there have only been 3 stars in the entirety of the 2000s, that’s ridiculous.
He was like top 5-10 in jersey sales from 09-12, so yeah a lot of people were asking for his jersey. Guess you must not watch a lot basketball though
You clearly weren’t around back then 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don’t get why he doesn’t want to do it when he could easily win lmao
Dude can lift off from the free throw line in-game he could just replicate that and it’d be instant 50s.
I get that there’s some ‘creativity’ factor in there but i mean he’s arguably got GOAT athleticism lol
Why LeBron? There have always been stars who skipped it. he was nowhere near the first.
Kevin Garnett
Clyde Drexler
Scottie Pippen
Shawn Kemp
Grant Hill
Chris Webber
Karl Malone
Charles Barkley
All elite in-game dunkers. None did the contest.
If the event’s health depends on one player, that’s a structural problem - not a LeBron problem.
Shawn Kemp, Clyde Drexler, and Scottie Pippen participated in the dunk contest what you on about?
Kemp and Drexler were in it multiple times even.
Half those guys ain’t dunkers 😂
I can excuse Kevin Garnett skipping it but for crying out loud not once from Kevin Garnett??
Scottie Pippen did
Lebron was THE star, him not doing it absolutely contributed to everyone else giving zero fucks about it.
Ah yes let’s blame LeBron for everything. He was the reason why there was no dunk contest from 97-2000, Kobe was a rookie when he did it lmao.
Blame Lebron but not Curry is crazy, curry laying down on the floor doesn’t get enough hate
i think we’ve got to also accept that with social media people have so much access to “professional” dunkers, the dunk contest just isn’t going to be as special.
also, kind of like extreme sports, when tony hawk did the 900 or first guy to backflip a dirtbike, it was incredible, but now both wouldn’t even get you a medal. we may have just reached the limits of what humans can do with dunking, so it looks less impressive every year
true lol
No, no star player could do these dunks lol
Literally nobody cares about the dunks because nobody knows the people doing them
The fact a G leaguer won 3 years in a row is proof positive that just being able to dunk is not the point
People want to see the starts dunk…even if the dunks aren’t as good
I disagree, if the dunks are trash then people won’t care regardless
The lack of people watching the dunk contest indicates that your opinion is in the minority not that majority
4-5 million people watch the dunk contest now
When Jordan went against Dominique Wilkins, that contest got a 33 share. In other words, 33% or 1⁄3 of ALL tv’s that were on were watching the dunk contest
Star power matters
It was new, Mike was top 3 player in the game when he did it, all of the top 5 now are bigs or non athletic.
Zion was a #1 pick…didn’t participate
Ja was a #2 pick…didn’t participate
Cooper Flagg was a #1 pick…didn’t participate
Anthony Edwards was a #1 pick…didn’t participate
Markelle Fultz was a #1 pick…didn’t participate
Andrew Wiggins was a #1 pick and rookie of the year…didn’t participate
Kyrie Irving #1 pick…did not participate
Cade Cunningham was a #1 pick…did not participate
I believe the last #1 pick to compete was Blake Griffin and that was 15 years ago
Plenty of non big star power has come into the NBA in the last decade and they consistently don’t compete in the dunk contest
Zion, ja, ant are ones I could give you that could’ve did it. The rest are not big dunkers
Bruh Jaylen Brown disproved that 😂
Robbed.
Oh sweet child… If these were the golden days of the dunk contest for you…
Why dont you make an actual helpful comment by saying your favorite ones?
JRich vs Desmond Mason for me
https://youtu.be/XDzCW_87G04?si=C1rkmoZi1051MbK3
How young are you, OP?
this was the first NBA event I ever attended, lol
Lavine thought it was over. And if we go by social shares instead of judges’ votes, it was over.
That one was all time great between those two. Never thought either would have the careers they did either.
If the only acceptable dunk contests are the same less-than-half-dozen brought up every time, maybe the dunk contest is a bad idea.
It’s worth watching the bad ones to see the good ones.
this was way past the golden era
That’s not Vince Carter
I still have a hoodie with this dunk on it lol
Unless we get some mind bending dunks I feel like everything has been done already.
Spud Webb
I 2016 is the golden age then holy fuck you’re young.
Not really. It’s objectively one of the best dunk contests ever. Could even make the argument it’s the best given the perfect duel they had. If the OP meant golden days as far as a stretch of dunk contests, of course not.
The “glory days” of the dunk contest were back when guys didn’t need somebody to hold the ball for them to pull off a decent dunk
Trying to hate on this dunk contest is flat out comical
Crazy to me that even though he’s an incredible athlete, Mac Mcclung’s head was higher on the rim despite being way shorter.
The 2015 contest was incredible.
The greatest dunker of all time right there!
That’s Gerald Green, but this is probably the greatest single performance of all-time though
2020 was very good too unfortunately Gordon had comp AGAIN but it makes the contest 10x better
Filter over it like 2016 cameras shot on film
The pinnacle of the Dunk Contest, right here.
I’m so fucking old
For me this surpasses even Vince’s performance.
This is the best dunk I’ve ever seen!! Goddamn! This is something I’d try in the pool.
This one and the 720 by air up there are the greatest dunks of all time
Reminder: lavine himself said they should’ve shared the trophy that night. It sucks Gordon didn’t win but at least he had the ultimate respect of his opponent.
Greatest two foot leaper I’ve ever seen, doing all of that at around 250. Saw him dunk from just inside the ft line off of 2, man almost landed out of bounds
My favorite dunk of all time. The photo of him sitting on air is incredible
That is an absolutely wild dunk.
Its amazing how much of a difference it makes watching these dunks in slow motion plus other angles. Real time doesnt do justice
LET’S GO HOME
Greatest dunk contest dunk of all-time right there.
Shame Aaron Gordon never won a contest. He was the last person genuinely interested in competing and winning it
That 2020 snub was the last straw, and he said he’s done after that.
It was d wade who really ruined the dunk contest
This was, unfortunately, also (in my opinion), the biggest robbery in dunk constest history
A Hawks fan calling this the biggest robbery when Jordan robbed Nique in Chicago?
I hear you, Jordan’s FT line dunk is iconic enough that I give that a pass though
Fred Jones robbing J-Rich of a 3-peat is the biggest robbery imo. One of the weakest 50 point dunks imaginable.
I’ll die on this hill: Gordon wasn’t robbed. He had a mediocre dunk in the final round when it mattered most. He used all his best dunks too early. If he switched up and did these last, he probably wins.
He was robbed in the first championship round when Lavine did a slightly easier version of the same dunk, all the announcers agreed Gordon’s dunk was better, and yet they got the same score. And his final round dunk was sick, the double pump was amazing. Should have gone another round if we’re saying that every good dunk has to be a 50, and lavine shouldn’t have got a 50 in the first round if we don’t say that.
They should’ve tied as lavine said himself
Why did the NBA change the all star game format to this shit? I don’t remember the years but I feel like the one John wall was in was the last good slam dunk contest then it went to shit or maybe that was the year it started sucking
The John Wall one was where they decided to make it teams east vs west and didn’t actually score any of the dunks out of 50 and instead relied on fan voting. The following year we got Lavine single handedly saving the contest when they went back to the original format.
I think every year since Vince we’ve been “bringing back” the dunk contest, or “saving” the dunk contest. And I think even at the time Vince “brought back” the dunk contest. I think the NBA needs to move on from it for a while. It’s not the highlight or spectacle that it once was. None of the name guys care to do it anymore, and honestly we see the same dunks now year in and year out. I’m not sure how much new shit is really out there to do anymore.
They should focus more on the 3PT contest, and make that a bigger deal. It’s more competitive, players try, and they can draw name players in more for the title of best 3PT shooter.
Lol while Wall’s dunk was pretty good, the rest of the contest was godawful and they never tried that team dunking format ever again. It featured such lowlights as Ben Mclemore dunking over a sitting Shaq, Harrison Barnes’ lame NBA2K motion captured dunk that prompted Kenny Smith to say, “Nobody is going to download that.”, and the abrupt ending that left the participants confused.
Huh? Lavine vs Gordon is one of the best dunk contests of all time