NBA Dunk Contest Concerns

The NBA dunk contest has been one of my favorite sporting events ever since I watched the first one back in 1984. Since that time, the dunk contest has been an annual event at all star weekend. Below I have listed the winners of each year's contests.

1984- Larry Nance
1985- Dominique Wilkins
1986- Spud Webb

1987- Michael Jordan

1988- Michael Jordan

1989- Kenny Walker

1990- Dominique Wilkins

1991- Dee Brown

1992- Cedric Ceballos

1993- Harold Miner

1994- Isaiah Rider

1995- Harold Miner

1996- Brent Barry

1997- Kobe Bryant

1998- No competition held

1999- Lockout- no competition

2000- Vince Carter

2001- Desmond Mason

2002- Jason Richardson

2003- Jason Richardson

2004- Fred Jones

2005- Josh Smith

2006- Nate Robinson

2007- Gerald Green

2008- Dwight Howard

2009- Nate Robinson

2010- Nate Robinson

2011- Blake Griffin

Some of these contests have definitely been more memorable than others. A few of them have been downright disappointing. Dr. J set the standard for these contests. The battles between Dominique and Jordan were legendary. Spud Web, Kenny Walker, and Dee Brown were fun surprises winners. Jason Richardson pulled off some incredibly difficult dunks and Vince Carter's performance was perfect and revitalized the contest.

I couldn't believe some of the people they chose to judge the contest in the early years. I remember Martina Navratilova and Joe Piscapo judging one year. That make sense since they were both such seasoned dunkers...NOT! I'm glad past players and prior dunk champs judge now since they know what they are doing and can appreciate what the athletes do.

In 2004 they changed the format to a 4 person contest and I don't understand why. There are so many talented dunkers in the NBA so why would you want to limit the action and excitement? I'd prefer the way it was set up in the early days when you had many more participants. I'd even be happy if each team sent a player and they just did exhibition dunks in layup lines for 15 minutes as opposed to all the hype behind the limited action we now see.

I'm also not a fan of props. I can understand if someone wants to put a sticker on the backboard, put tape down on the floor to show where they jumped from, or jump over a person, but we don't need phone booths, superman capes, or cars, and we really don't need gospel choirs marching out on the floor and singing before a dunk attempt. As much as I love Blake Griffin, last years contest was too much hype and not enough substance. I hope they don't pick up where they left off.

Also, if you are going to limit participation to just 4 players, why don't you pick the best dunkers in the league? I honestly think the NBA is trying to sabotage the event this year. I wish they would make some changes to the dunk contest since it has the potential to be one of the funnest and most exciting events of the year, but I find myself enjoying it less and less with time. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.