When is the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest 2021?
The NBA All-Star Dunk Contest 2021 will be held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta with a different schedule compared to previous years.
Unlike the past few decades where the Slam Dunk Contest, the 3-Point Contest, and the Skills Challenge were held on a Friday or Saturday, all these events will happen on a single day.
The NBA has scheduled all their All-Star events on Sunday, March 7, with each one happening at a different time. The dunk contest, officially called the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest, is set to take place at halftime of the NBA All-Star Game.
The game itself will kick off at 8 PM ET, with the dunk contest to begin once the first two quarters are done. This means there’s no definite time for the event.
Based on the length of previous All-Star Games, halftime will likely be an hour to an hour-and-a-half from the scheduled time of the event.
NBA All-Star Dunk Contest 2021: The participants and the rules
Since the dunk contest will be a halftime event, the NBA narrowed down the field of participants to only three players instead of four. The participants are Anfernee Simons from the Portland Trail Blazers, Cassius Stanley from the Indiana Pacers and Obi Toppin from the New York Knicks.
The dunk contest is composed of two rounds. Each participant will be attempting two dunks each in the first round, with the judges giving out scores from 6-10. The minimum total score a player can receive per dunk is 30 while the maximum is 50.
Only the two players with the highest combined scores will advance to the second round.
In the final round, the participants will perform just one dunk each, and the winner will be selected from this single entry. There will be no scoring for the round. Instead, a “Judges Choice” will determine the winner.
Each judge will raise a card with the name of their dunker of choice, and the player whose name appears the most on the judges’ cards will be declared the winner.
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