The death of the dunk contest

I can remember growing up and watching the SuperSonics as much as I possibly could.  When I was little, there were members on that team like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Benjamin Benoit, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf, the list goes on and on and on.

The greatest thing about these superstars that I watched was when the All Star break rolled around.  Unlike today, I could see my favorite players compete in the skills challenges and the amazingness that was the slam dunk contest

Oh, the dunk contest.  I remember watching Kemp compete in that.  I remember a skinny Vince Carter blowing everybodys minds, and most of all, I remember Jordan.  Michael freakin' Jordan man.  At the prime of his career.  During those 2 3-peat runs with the Bulls.  When he was winning MVPs.  Defensive Player of the Year awards.  Scoring titles.  You get the point.

Flash forward to the post-Jordan NBA.  In the 10 years since his retirement, the best player in the league has not participated in the dunk contest.  Jordan was clearly the best player in the league while he was competing, and since he left, I think that title comes down to 2 people, both of whom I am not a personal fan of, and they are Kobe Bryant and Lebron James.  Yes, I know Bryant has competed in the dunk contest, but not when he was in his prime.  Sure, he was young and still extremely good, but he wasn't the run away superstar that he is now.

So why am I railing on James and Bryant now?  Because they haven't carried the dunk torch like they should.  At this point now, the torch is Lebron's to carry, and he's never competed in the dunk contest.  Which brings me to why I'm writing this.

Magic Johnson offers Lebron $1 million dollars

Seriously?  That's the state of the contest now?  This isn't a million bucks to win, this is a million bucks to just show up.  And don't give me crap about the injury risk that these guys claim when they don't compete in this.  They have an infinitely greater risk dunking during pre-game warm ups, at least in the dunk contest there isn't anybody else on the court or loose basketballs rolling around.

I do understand when they are nursing an injury.  I remember a couple of years ago when James had an ankle injury, and 2 years ago when Kobe didn't want to play in the all star game itself because of a hand injury.  Kobe, ok, I'll give you a pass there, that's fine.  But Lebron played in that all star game.  And looked great.  Kobe played in his injury game too, started, played for maybe 5 minutes, and rode the bench the rest of the game.  Because - shocker - he was actually hurt.

What we need here is these stars to realize that this is an exhibition event that is designed to pump millions of dollars into both the league and themselves.  Shit, Blake Griffin dunked over a Kia, and guess what?  Sponsorship deal.  Dwight Howard is probably one of the biggest douches in sports, but he competed in this once upon a time as well.


These premiere players need to follow the example that Jordan set.  If you are a superstar in this league and a prolific dunker, do this damn contest!  Lebron, dunking is the only reason your FG% isn't 12, enter the damn contest.  Stop making it so that the dunk  contest story is about Nate Robinson, who's arrogance caused the league to change the dunk contest rules.  His 14 attempts to make his winning dunk in 2006 caused the league to put a time cap on how long players had to successfully complete their dunks.

Now, when we hear about the participants, I find myself going "Who?" half the time.  I'm hoping Blake Griffin comes back, he's been the biggest star at this thing the last... 5 years?  Something like that.

And I hope Lebron competes too.  And I hope he wows us.  And I hope he comes back year after year.  Because he's capable of that.  He's our greatest player right now.

But I hope that when he does compete, Magic doesn't pay him.  If Lebron says anything about that, he'll just look like the greedy prick he is.  As stupid as I think he is, I honestly don't think he's that stupid.

Good Lord, I had no idea how much I disliked Lebron James.