RIP Slam Dunk Contest

A couple years back, the NBA actually eliminated the Slam Dunk Contest from the All-Star Weekend. Now it’s been back for a few, and it reminds me much more of the WWF (I’m old school like that) than the Contests of yester year. Two backboards? Phone booths and capes as props? This is just getting silly. I’m posting the highlights from last night’s contest, where 5’9″ Nate “Kryptonite” Robinson beat out 7’0″ Dwight “Superman” Howard by actually jumping over him. Ehh, I’m still unimpressed.

All the hoopla, the wardrobe changes and self-aggrandizing celebration dances really have helped alienate me completely from this competition. So, just to prove my point, I am going to post the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest, showcasing Michael Jordan versus Dominique Wilkins in what is widely regarded as the best ever. Number one in my heart, at least.

There just used to be something a little more graceful, a little more poetic about this contest. Now it is like everything else in the NBA, that “look at me attitude.” Plus, these guys are winning without the best dunker in the league even competing, Lebron James. I’m thoroughly disappointed and mildly irritated that this contest still gets as much coverage as it does. For me, it has been dead for years.

RIP Slam Dunk Contest.

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