"We’ve seen Michael Jordan go from the free throw line, we’ve seen guys jump over cars" - Rich Eisen believes people found the Slam Dunk Contest boring because 'we’ve seen it all'
The 2022 NBA Dunk Contest has been widely criticized for not living up to the excitement the contest usually has. For starters, there were no big names in the dunk contest, probably because superstars don’t want to end up getting hurt. Additionally, the dunks lacked creativity and seemed repetitive – not really getting the fans out of their seats.
Rich Eisen of “The Rich Eisen Show” sat down with Chris Brockman and TJ Jefferson to debate what measures the NBA could take to fix the contest. Eisen compared the contest to the NFL’s Pro Bowl, which is essentially American Football's version of the NBA's All-Star game.
“The Slam Dunk Contest was so brutal. And all I could think of, is it’s the same thing as the Pro Bowl problem the HFL has. And there’s no fixing it." Eisen continued. "I’m saying, the same problem the slam dunk contest has, is the same thing we have about the Pro Bowl, which is like – ‘Why are we even having it’? That’s what I’m saying.”
TJ Jefferson raised the point that participants weren’t really known by casual fans and suggested adding an incentive to the dunk contest. Bringing in players like Ja Morant into the dunk contest could really elevate the excitement around it, but Eisen felt otherwise,
“But Ja Morant doesn’t want to look like Jalen Green, which is take five shots at it, six shots at it.”
Eisen then went on to elaborate, saying that as fans, we've basically seen it all when it comes to the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest.
“That’s part of the problem – we’ve seen it all. We’ve seen short guys like Spud Webb do it and we’ve seen Michael Jordan go from the free-throw line, we’ve seen guys jump over cars. Now when you put Wiggins out there, its like okay, I’ve seen teammates jump over teammates – I’ve seen it all.”
The contest had four participants, including Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks, Juan Toscano-Anderson of the Golden State Warriors, Jalen Green of the Houston Rockets and Anthony Cole of the Orlando Magic.
Although some of the dunks were hard to perform, they ultimately did not push the envelope in terms of what we've seen. Eisen came up with a suggestion for the NBA regarding the deteriorating Dunk contest.
“Or here what’s you do – you just take it and it’s no longer the last thing of the night. Make the three-point shooting contest the last of the night, because that actually is terrific."
Is the three-point contest more exciting than the dunk contest?
With Steph Curry already having changed the game, making teams and even centers focus more on their three-pointers, that argument by Rich Eisen isn’t way off. In the 2022 edition, Karl Anthony-Towns became the first center in NBA History to win a three-point contest – which was very impressive, and Eisen certainly thought so too.
"That is amazing, this is an amazing feat of actual shooting"
Another possibility could be to bring in athletes who are not part of the NBA, but have special dunking abilities – and let them battle it out. That keeps the excitement of the dunk contest alive, and the creativity they could bring would be astounding, as that’s what their speciality is.