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He is right! There should be shark tanks involved!
Maybe the Dunk, Not Just the Dunk Contest, Is Losing Its Luster
SportingNews
After Saturday’s awful historical reenactment of an early-’90s dunk contest, the Internet was set aflame with arguments for how to save the event. Should David Stern force LeBron to do it? Should they allow all manner of props, including live sharks and polar bears? Should it take place on the moon?
Maybe, though, the dunk contest’s woes don’t have anything to do with its specific format or participants, but rather with the underlying premise. What if the showboating dunk is no longer a compelling play in itself?
Now, before you send me to basketball Amish country with the people who want to raise the rim to 11 feet, let me explain. Aerial artists have become so talented that what was once incredible is now commonplace. When Isaiah Rider pulled off the through-the-legs "East Bay Funk Dunk" in 1994, the entire arena exploded, and Charles Barkley called it the best dunk he’d ever seen. On Saturday, DeMar DeRozan executed a more difficult version of the same dunk and received a score of 42. The problem isn’t that dunkers are worse—it’s that we’ve already seen most every kind of dunk that can be done. The only things left are a flip, or a windmill with each hand at the same time, or jumping through a ring of fire like the Suns’ Gorilla. We are jaded viewers.
This problem extends to real games, too, where breakaway jams are becoming more and more perfunctory. These days, a windmill is only slightly more exciting than an easy layup. What really excites fans these days is the defensive play or outlet pass that led to the basket.
That’s an important difference to note, because it’s indicative of a shift in the way basketball fans view the game. New stats and more comprehensive blog coverage have uncovered previously neglected aspects of the game like solid help defense, and fan viewing habits have followed suit. The crowd may not erupt with glee after a quality defensive rotation, but they pay greater attention to detail and are generally more willing to champion a less noticeable contribution in addition to the highlight-reel plays. A dunk is still nice, but it’s no longer the end-all be-all of on-court excitement. There are other kinds of plays just as worthy of our gaze.
However, there is one kind of dunk that still excites on the same level of dunks of old: dunking on someone. The excitement around Shannon Brown’s inclusion in the dunk contest arose from his several fantastic slams on bigger players this season, and his disappointing performance on Saturday shocked many. But the dunks that made Brown’s reputation have very little to do what happens in a dunk contest. In games, his throwdowns over and on defenders are about reorienting time and space to fit his needs. A contest dunk is about defying expectations of what can be done, but it also depends on near-limitless imagination from the dunker. To put it another way, in games, the dunking Brown is thrown into an ever-shrinking box with one small opening and told to crawl out of it. On Saturday, he had to define the dimensions of the box and throw every other compe or inside it. One task is fit for a human overcoming difficult obstacles—the other is about his transformation into godhood.
More often that not, it’s the latter that excites us on the court: Steve Nash creates an opening for a pass that didn’t exist before, Kobe Bryant hits a shot over three people, Dwyane Wade bullies his way to the foul line, etc. In these cases, players are given situations (i.e. restrictions) and told to do their best. Their creativity involves exploiting gaps that a regular player cannot see.
What we expect of our dunkers is far different and much less attainable. For a contest or open-court dunk to excite, there must be a continual push toward the horizon, constant innovation and progress. It’s a play without defining cir stances, dependent on nothing but the personal creativity and athleticism of the dunker. As more and more dunks are attempted and completed, it becomes increasingly difficult for anyone to truly shock us.
That’s ultimately the reason why so many people clamor for LeBron’s inclusion in the dunk contest. He’s the only player in today’s league who we can conceive of as capable of redefining what it means to dunk. We need a new god to reshape the play itself, not athletic mortals who can only offer adjustments on what has come before.
He is right! There should be shark tanks involved!
Nate Robinson is the biggest joke of a winner ever. I remember the first time he won it he missed the dunk 20 times before he actually made it.
The Dunk Contest sucks now.
No stars = no interest. Period. Everyone is super athletic in the NBA. Athleticism alone would never have drawn crowds in the 1970's or the 1980's either. They have to be stars competing to begin with.
3 point shoot-out is still more impressive, if it weren't for that Peja debacle a few years ago it would be almost without blemish.
I want the NBA to ins ute a 1-on-1 tournament with a huge payout for the stars. This would hold my interest.
I do enjoy the skills challenge more than I thought I would, in large part because the better PG's actually seem to come out for it...
We are simply reaching the peak of what a human is able to do with a ball and a 10 foot rim, that's all.
Some of LeBron's dunks last night tell me that the dunk is not dead at all. The dunk contestants this year were just not very creative or exciting. Nate might be a joke of a winner, but in all honesty, he was the best dunker of the four they had competing. Default or not, joke of a winner or not, I wouldn't have voted for anyone else. What happened to all that Shannon Brown hype? Gerald Wallace's big exciting trick was to hang on the rim an extra two seconds after a normal dunk. DeMar Derozen's pimples had more personality and charisma than he did. It's not the dunk itself.
You get guys like LeBron, Josh Smith, Iguodala, at least they'd add some e and creativity and you'd be halfway entertained. I just think it was a poor selection of contestants that really made it exceptionally bad this year. Now, yeah, the dunk contest has been getting old and it seems like there can't be any new or exciting that can happen. But, a lot of people thought that way at the time Vince Carter competed. And then people thought the same way before Dwight Howard pulled out the superman cape. It takes not only some creative and original dunks, but some personality. Those guys the other night were all wack not only because their dunks sucked, but because they had no personality or charisma. At least Nate tried to work the crowd a little bit.
I don't think the dunk is dead. But, as far as the dunk contest, it will take certain types of players to bring excitement back to the dunk contest.
I heard similar things before Vince did like 2-3 dunks most people never even imagined before.
No way. I think we've seriously stretched the limits, but this is the first year in recent memory where they didn't bring out SOMETHING new.
, Dwight Howard was able to think up two new dunks alone with the sticker, and the Superman.
Green blowing out the candle had never been seen before.
Still waiting to see a patented 720.
, Nate could've jumped over the cheerleaders and that would've at least been new. Instead he just used them as some dumbass prop (while still claiming he wasn't using props). And somehow, that worked for him.
Personally though, I think All Star Weekend is going to continually be a joke as long as they let the fans decide everything. It's one thing to do it for the Rookie Game, but when you're putting Slam Dunk Contests and All-Star MVPs (things that used to be somewhat meaningful, if not purely cosmetic, les) in the hands of text voting, then I'd expect the players to stop caring.
Generation American Idol.
Yeah, they need to cut down the amount of things fans control because it has been proven over and over again that a great majority of fans are stupid. And what's worse is that the stupid ones are the ones that vote and text in.
11-foot rims are the solution lol
I still think their is a ton amount of dunks that havent been done in a dunk contest its just that the players that are chosen for the dunk contest are afraid of trying new dunks.
Go on youtube and check out Team Flight Brothers. Now they are creative and impressive.
They should make it a 50-50 vote. 50 percent of votes come from the fans and other 50 from the judges or who ever.
The dunk contest didn't die with Carter. JRich, Desmond Mason, and Iguodala did some of the sickest dunks in NBA history this decade, and Dwight Howard had some pretty good ones in Vegas and NO also, like the sticker dunk and the windmill from behind the backboard.
Exactly. The thing is their was no creativity on saturday (Except for 1 DeRozan dunk )
This is not it, players/athletes and new things keep developing. If you got the chance to go back in time and ask people 30 years ago and tell them what is being accomplished now in sports, they would not believe it, but it happens and it keeps improving and developing. Results, athleticism, records, moves etc... and yeah even what a human is able to do with a ball and a 10 foot rim.
It's just that the wrong contestants have been chosen to participate in this contest and idk, the whole atmosphere looked kinda poor too. Nate did deserve it to be the winner, even though the contest sucked, he was still the best.
Last edited by Bukefal; 02-15-2010 at 06:28 PM.
ya, the way they both moved in sync and the perfect lob actually caught my attention there. And on the first try.
if james did the same dunks they would have sucked
Agreed. It needs players that not only have the talent but showmanship. Other than Nate and the Cowboys cheerleaders; no one really got the crowd into the recent contest and he still barely won.
James White's in between the leg dunk from the FT, NBA should have put him in the dunk contest in 07 when he was with the Spurs and eligible. He would be the 3 time champ by now
To me it's a combination of things. Bad dunkers chosed, not much creativity, etc.
What I don't understand is why Howard was not invited. He really re invented and put the DC out of it's mediocre slump with the Super Man thing and the sticker on the backboard. To me that was special, he really had great ideas. But he wasn't invited. So I don't get it.
Howard even made other dunkers be creative too, remeber the guy putting out a candle in a cupcake before dunking?. That's special too. That's the new dunk contest but Stern probably wanted to bring back the old school dunkers, but didn't really worked. The only way to be special again is either bring great dunkers with popularity or call Howard and those creative things again, which I repeat is the new style of dunking cause there's no dunks to invent anymore.
Between the legs and windmill from the FT line. James White really flies.
This one is behind the FT line:
Cancel the dunk contest and create a new contest: The travel contest
Which player can produce the most beautiful travel.
I think in the first compe ion the NBA should invite James and Wade, would be an awesome h2h battle.
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