Slam Dunk Contest - Relevant or not?

Watching an electrifying dunk mid game has more of a impact on the viewer than watching it in a dunk contest. Looking up at the night sky, when you focus on one star and try to discern its features, ironically the surrounding stars appear to be clearer. Isolating one by the exclusion of all others makes the one lose its hypnotic appeal. Same holds true for dunks. In the contest, you know that the dunk is coming, it’s all you are focusing on. But when it comes to an in-game dunk, there is an element of surprise. It’s like looking at a painting and the one tiny pixel in it magnifies and shatters the laws of physics by leaping out of the frame. In-game dunks are often unanticipated and unplanned. You think Vince Carter planned his leap over Weis? Did Griffin intend to make Mozgov a verb? That’s the reason why in-game dunks will always overshadow the dunks in the dunk contest, regardless of the freedom afforded to the latter.

Also, in-game dunks have the best possible prop for a dunk; an unwitting prop, who attempts to contest the dunk and ends up on a poster. I’ve always maintained that some participant in the dunk contest ought to bring out Ostertag or Mozgov as a prop and dunk over them. You can’t plan those dunks in which the dunker and dunkee make up the dunk as they meet in mid air. The Griffin dunk over Perkins was made possible because of the cooperation of Perkins. Griffin’s hangtime extended because of the collision with Perkins, and that made the dunk even more amazing. That’s something which doesn’t happen in the contest.

And it’s different for the viewers too. It’s different when you’re watching a dunk in a dunk contest and when you play witness to one during a game. In the game, looking up at a giant soaring above you on the court for a vicious slam makes you stand up from your seat and marvel at the visceral spectacle. That’s not always the case in the contest because you are anticipating it. And you pretty much know what to anticipate, right?

I’m a huge fan of Blake Griffin, but I’m not a fan of the choir he brought out for his KIA dunk. It’s like back in the old ages of skateboard freestyle, when the competitors would dress up in leotards and do dance steps along with the skateboard tricks. That sport was about freestyling on the board, not freestyle dancing by itself. Slowly, that aspect of freestyle went out of fashion as the skaters took technical freestyling further.

The NBA slam dunk contest is actually devolving in the direction the skateboard freestyle contests climbed out of. We now have Blake Griffin bring out a church choir to sing I believe I can fly. We now have James White bring out rows of cheerleaders dressed as flight attendants. That doesn’t really add anything to the dunk itself, in my opinion. It’s actually a step backwards. Some degree of showmanship is welcome, but it should never overshadow the dunk or be just a gimmick by itself.

They say that every dunk that can be done, has been done in the dunk contest. Much like what Charles Holland Duell was purported to have said in the 19th century – “Everything that can be invented, has been invented.” We keep thinking that to be true and everyday something new comes along to surprise us; much like the dunk contest, where we fear that the entire gamut of possible dunks has been exhausted, but something new always comes along to surprise us.

But those surprises are few and far between these days. There are those who hold the belief that the slam dunk contest is redundant. And the concerns are legitimate. Today’s contest wasn’t too much of a barn burner. Some say that having some stars like LeBron James in the contest will definitively spice it up. But LeBron isn’t too enthusiastic about it.

“Why don’t you take a poll and see if you think I have more to lose than gain?” LeBron James asked Brian Windhorst, a writer. “If I decided to do it then I would have to win. Otherwise, it would be a waste of my Saturday night.” LeBron doesn’t find any incentive to participate in the dunk contest. His teammate, Dwyane Wade echoes those views. “Yes, you do have something to lose,” Wade said. “I’m not a dunk contest person. I’m not creative enough, I don’t jump as high as those guys. It would be a lot of jokes, a lot of things said and for years. I enjoy being a fan on the sidelines and not making a fool of myself.”

I can think of one incentive for those two to participate in the dunk contest. Give the fans what they want to see. Why would you need any other reason besides that? Any time you step on the basketball court, you have more to lose than to gain. Potentially, you could have your shoelaces untied and wrapped around each other and fall flat on your face. You could have a ball hit you smack in your face. You could be Mozgoved. You could play victim to an NBA record setting offensive explosion. There are innumerable ways you could lose and a finite ways you could gain from a win. A win is a win, regardless of whether you score thirty or three, but scoring three and scoring thirty in a loss are two very different things. It is understood that he will have more to lose than to gain. That is the risk he ought to take.

Besides having some big name volunteer to be in the contest, another way to spice the contest up would be to let the fans vote for whom they want to see in the contest. I think the appeal of the contest is getting a little diluted, and adding a element of pickup ball to it can resurrect it for the better. Regardless, the dunk contest is here to stay.