History of the NBA Dunk Contest

One of the best parts of the NBA All-Star Weekend is the Slam Dunk Contest. But how did it start and what is some of the history behind it?

The NBA brought the Slam Dunk Contest back in 1984, it was originally held in the ABA. The contest was brought back in 1984 at its birthplace, Denver. This dunk contest is one of the most memorable as Julius Erving dunked from the free throw line. Larry Nance would eventually win that dunk contest. The next year Dominique Wilkins would win the contest. Wilkins was close to repeating the title but was stopped by his teammate, Spud Webb, who became the shortest player in history to win the dunk contest at 5'7". This paved the way for Michael Jordan to become the first player in the dunk contest to repeat as he won the 1987 and 1988 dunk contests.

As the dunk contest entered the mid 90's the fan interest began to wane in the contest. Players felt that there was no reason to participate in this even as it could cause injury. They also felt that all of the dunks had been done to much. At this point lesser known players started to participate in the contest. This was not a smart move though. The players who began winning the contest were able to win with unoriginal dunks that were, in simple terms, boring.

The NBA saw that the interest and ratings were declining so they choose to cancel the event after the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. This just happened to be the year that a Kobe Bryant would do a between the legs dunk that would eventually win him the contest. Although Kobe Bryant did some good dunks, the rest of the contest was a complete dud and the contest was quickly criticized.

The NBA decided to layoff the contest for two years. The first contest after the break was in 2000. It was a fantastic display of dunking by Vince Carter, who won the contest, Tracy McGrady, and Steve Francis.

Unfortunately, the next four contests did not feature any superstars and the NBA began to talk about eliminating the competition again. The NBA's main argument was that the players were running out of dunks that people had never seen before and the lack of superstars willing to participate in the contest was hurting the appeal of the contest to the fans.

In 2005 the Slam Dunk Contest returned to its birthplace, Denver, and it was reborn. The spectacular dunks of the contest this year created a buzz that maybe the competition could regain the popularity it once had in the 1980s. This dunk contest had participants from Amare Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, and the champion Josh Smith. With a change in the rules requiring that an additional teammate been involved starting in the second round, these three dunkers proved there was still an unpaved surface of dunks. Stoudemire and J.R. Smith showed off some original dunks but the real hype was coming off of Josh Smith. Josh Smith did a tribute to Dominique Wilikins while wearing Wilikin's jersey. Smith cleared Kenyon Martin who was seating in a chair and dunked the ball.

The 2006 Dunk Contest revived the competition yet again. It was revived this time by the 5'9" Nate Robinson who took the title. The most notable dunk of this contest was a dunk over the former Slam Dunk champ Spud Webb. This contest also had the first "Dunk Off" between Nate Robinson and Andre Iguodala for the title. Much criticism followed this dunk contest as many thought that Iguodala deserved to win. Fans argue that Nate Robinson took seventeen attempts before he finally completed his dunk.

The last dunk contest that was held was judged by the hardest judging table ever. It consisted of Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant, Julius Erving, and Vince Carter. All of these judges were former dunk contest winners and the greatest dunkers of all time. The contest was taken by Gerald Green of the Boston Celtics. One of his dunks was when he cleared the reigning champ, Nate Robinson, while covering his face. This was a repeat of the 1991 winner, Dee Brown. In honor of Dee Brown, Green wore Brown's uniform. He also scored a perfect fifty off a windmill over a table dunk. Allow he did not make the final round, Dwight Howard made one of the best show dunks in history. He stuck a sticker of his face smiling on the backboard and received an alley-oop from his teammate. It was later reported that the sticker was stuck at 12'6", or 2'6" above the NBA rim.

That is just a little bit of the history of the NBA Dunk Contest. Allow it has had some bad times the dunk contest is still the most looked forward to event of the All-Star Weekend.