5 Ways to Fix the NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Image via Tim Nwachukwu/Getty

The Dunk Contest format has been exactly the same for a while now, and frankly it’s boring. We’ve seen the NBA try to mess with things before like the 2002 dunk wheel or the “freestyle” fiasco of 2014, and while those weren’t exactly the answer to the problem, at least the NBA tried something different. Currently, the most dunks possible for a competition (excluding tiebreakers) is 12, eight in the first round and then four in the final round. I don’t think that’s enough, adding more competitors or changing the way the rounds work could bring more dunks into the fold and lead to more creativity. 

One possible format change I’ll propose harkens back to an experience we all shared on the driveway. Lowering the hoop to seven feet and playing a round of H.O.R.S.E. but with dunks. Of course, the pros can keep the hoop at 10 feet, but seeing some of the top athletes in the world truly go dunk for dunk in a game of H.O.R.S.E. or D.U.N.K. to maybe speed things up is something I’d tune in for.

This is by far the most important change that the NBA absolutely needs to make. I am far from the first person to say it, but the league has to do everything in its power to get the game’s best on one of its biggest stages. We need to see Ja Morant in the dunk contest, even though he told us last year he’ll (probably) never appear in one. We need two-time Dunk Contest champion Zach LaVine back. The fact that we’re going to go LeBron James’ entire career without seeing him in a Dunk Contest is a travesty.

We’re far removed from the days of the Michael Jordans, Kobe Bryants, and Vince Carters of the league capping off Saturday night. I think the only way to actually entice these stars into competing is by adding an incentive. While the NBA is very unlikely to start paying guys to compete in these events, they could possibly implement some sort of charity component to increase desire from some of the game’s biggest names. Having bigger names has also helped bring rivalries to the competition in the past like Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard or LaVine and Aaron Gordon.

With a few exceptions like Steph Curry in last year’s 3-point Contest, Karl-Anthony Towns’ in this year’s, and Giannis Antetokounmpo a part of this year’s Skills Challenge, All-Star Saturday Night has turned into a showcase of the NBA’s youth. If you ask me, that’s what Friday night’s Rising Stars Challenge is for. Another option that would help solve this issue is making it mandatory for Dunk Contest contestants to be All-Stars. That would limit the field considerably, but it would also guarantee that bigger names are in the competition.

This idea comes with complications, sure. Who is the defender? Is it another competitor in the contest, etc.? There is also legitimate injury concern here which would almost certainly kill this idea. But half the dunks people do these days are things we’ve seen people try in a game. Just think about how much better Juan Toscano Anderson’s 360-windmill dunk would have been if it were over a defender? 

Maybe the blockers are on one team and the dunkers are on another team and on top of individual dunks, each team gets a point for either a completed dunk or a blocked attempt? Smarter people than me can hammer out the details, but there’s no way this wouldn’t be more exciting.

Nothing sucks the life out of a Dunk Contest crowd faster than seeing a player try the same dunk over and over again. It seemed like almost every dunk last night was completed on the third attempt or in the case of Jalen Green, what felt like the hundredth. The NBA has created quite the loophole with its attempts rule, which reads as follows: “In both rounds, each player must complete his dunk in three attempts. Per the NBA, an attempt is defined as the player controlling the basketball and moving it toward the rim.” This creates a situation where a player can drive toward the basket and either fumble the ball, miss the rim completely, or just stop before the even try (if their toss is wrong or they aren’t feeling it) and it doesn’t count as an attempt.

Not only does this serve as a beacon for the boo birds in the crowd, but it has to impact the judges’ scoring. With the Dunk Contest being subjectively scored (by some of the game’s all-time greats, some of which have competed in and won Dunk Contests themselves), it is only human nature to dock a guy for completing a dunk on his third try, or in some cases what feels like way more than that. I’m not sure if a one-and-done rule is the solve here, because then we’d see contestants trying much easier dunks and racking up a lot of 6s, but the easiest change is making the three attempts rule far stricter and not allowing someone to “not attempt” the same dunk an endless number of times.

To me, the Dunk Contest is as much about splendor as it is about incredible dunks. Gone are the days of Blake Griffin jumping over a car, or Howard bringing in a second stanchion to attempt a dunk on a 12-foot hoop. The only real props last night were Cole Anthony’s Timberlands (which could have been an all-time moment if he had landed his dunk on the first try), and an NFT necklace from Jalen Green that left a lot to be desired. I mean I’d even take something like Gerald Green blowing out a cupcake. It seems like the only creativity that’s left in the Dunk Contest is jumping over someone, or bringing someone in from the crowd to help throw you a lob. 

The main issue is that most of the time we are seeing dunkers try things that have already been done before, whether it is exactly the same or a slight variation. There wasn’t one single 50-point dunk Saturday. Something’s gotta change.