Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old

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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#21 » by HeartBreakKid » Wed Aug 14, 2019 9:26 am

How can you have an account that is 10 years old and ask this question?
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#22 » by C-Melo Man » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:11 am

A mix of both. Outside of the Lavine-Gordon dunk contest a few years ago, most of the others have been hard to watch. It'd be great to see more stars compete, but egos of losing gets in the way. Also, throughout the years we've seen most of the same dunks, so unless someone brings more creativity & versatility with dunking the ball, it'll remain the same for the most part. I'm just glad that last season's dunk contest didn't have many props as the prop thing the last few seasons were weak.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#23 » by AdonisDeMarion » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:24 am

Yes we're getting older, make no mistakes about that but the dunk contest is trash, has been for a few years. The whole all-star weekend needs a serious make over
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#24 » by mowcrowbar » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:31 am

Give me a 3v3 and 1v1 NBA street match. Get rid of the celebrity bull and the rising stars challenge garbage.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#25 » by OakleyDokely » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:39 am

Vince Carter should come out of retirement in his last season and show the kids how it's done.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#26 » by udfa » Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:47 pm

Yeah, it's been stale for awhile but it's old now. The repetitive bail-outs before a dunk attempt is finally delivered saps excitement from the eventual real dunk attempt, particularly since the false starts reveal the dunk and take the mystery out, sometimes long before the end.

Keep it 4 contestants, but do two 1 vs 1s. Scoring system is the same, 5 respected judges each scoring from 1-10. Each round you get two dunk attempts and no bail outs. There will be a ten second shot clock and the dunk has to be made before the buzzer. Player with the single highest dunk score advances.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#27 » by Myth » Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:56 pm

There are several factors that make it not what it once was, but I think the biggest factor is not having enough contestants. In nearly the entire history of the dunk contest, about half of the dunkers fail to put on a show. In the 80s, they frequently had 8 contestants. 4 would suck, and 4 would step up to the plate, and when we were really lucky, 2 truly exceeded to give us an amazing show. Now we have 4 contestants. 2 generally suck, and 2 step up to the plate to give a decent show. When we are lucky, 1 truly exceeds to do something memorable. Having 2 truly exceptional dunkers out of 4 is rare (has happened).
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#28 » by Brofessor24 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:06 pm

IMO people shouldn't expect players to always make their dunks on the first try. Some dunks are simply too difficult to make on the first try (like the 360 eastbay for example). When Dennis Smith Jr did a reverse 360 eastbay with his left hand back in 2018, I remember that a some people kept harping on the fact that he didn't make it on the first try, instead of appreciating how difficult/spectacular it was (to me that dunk was the best one of the entire contest).
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#29 » by Buzzard » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:07 pm

It became irrelevant and boring when the All-Stars stopped competing. It is closer to being a Rising Stars dunk contest now.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#30 » by infinite11285 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:18 pm

6ixSideSniper wrote:
kulaz3000 wrote:The biggest issue isn't neccarily the dunks, though it is a massive component, but that the big time stars are seemingly dodging it unlike in the past.

I still don't understand why LeBron never decided to compete in it. Sure, he may have never won it, but who cares. There were some really great players who lost in the dunk competition and 3 point competition, and it didn't diminish their legacy. Hell, Jordan once competed in the 3 point contest and stunk it up, no one ever talks about that. It would have been amazing just to see LeBron compete and it would have garnered plenty of buzz.

The league needs to do everything they can to get Zion to compete.


This.

As soon as the stars decided that the Dunk contest was no longer prestigious and left it to rookies and sophomores, the quality had taken a huge hit.

Not too long ago, MJ, Kobe, VC, Iverson, hell Tracy McGrady all competed in the dunk contest and really took a lot of pride in trying to take it.

People don’t care just about who can do the best dunk, we want to see the best players in the league compete amongst each other to see who’s the best dunker out of them. If fans wanted to purely see hard-to-do dunks by anybody, there’s a ton of footage of that on YouTube and amateur dunk contests.


Is it too crazy to believe that some of these guys want to relax a bit during All-Star break? They already play 82 games during the regular season, play during Thanksgiving, play during Christmas, play in the All-Star game, and play deep into the playoffs. There's literally no incentive to participate in a dunk contest that's become more about marketing than the competition itself.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#31 » by gpoon » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:26 pm

6ixSideSniper wrote:
kulaz3000 wrote:The biggest issue isn't neccarily the dunks, though it is a massive component, but that the big time stars are seemingly dodging it unlike in the past.

I still don't understand why LeBron never decided to compete in it. Sure, he may have never won it, but who cares. There were some really great players who lost in the dunk competition and 3 point competition, and it didn't diminish their legacy. Hell, Jordan once competed in the 3 point contest and stunk it up, no one ever talks about that. It would have been amazing just to see LeBron compete and it would have garnered plenty of buzz.

The league needs to do everything they can to get Zion to compete.


This.

As soon as the stars decided that the Dunk contest was no longer prestigious and left it to rookies and sophomores, the quality had taken a huge hit.

Not too long ago, MJ, Kobe, VC, Iverson, hell Tracy McGrady all competed in the dunk contest and really took a lot of pride in trying to take it.

People don’t care just about who can do the best dunk, we want to see the best players in the league compete amongst each other to see who’s the best dunker out of them. If fans wanted to purely see hard-to-do dunks by anybody, there’s a ton of footage of that on YouTube and amateur dunk contests.


What year did Iverson do the dunk contest?
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#32 » by IQ_baller » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:31 pm

Have each team send out their best dunker. Each participant is allowed 1 dunk and get 10 seconds to complete it. The top 10 move on to the next round. The 10 that move on get 20 seconds to complete their best dunk 1, with the highest 3 scores moving on. The 3 finalists get 1 dunk for the title
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#33 » by Forte IV » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:37 pm

The Zach LaVine/Aaron Gordon dual was exciting but since then it's been blah. It seems like the dunk contest is good again every 4-5 years.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#34 » by SpeedyG » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:40 pm

There's only so many new dunks players can do and for a lot of us, which seen it all.

In the rare instance that a player brings out something new (and actually pull it off on the first attempt, which is really what drives the suspense and surprise of a dunk), it's great.

But it takes a special set of circumstance for it to not feel like "been there done that"

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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#35 » by MaxZaslofskyJr » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:48 pm

I've always wanted a slam dunk competition that went something like this. Forget the subjective scoring. Have an adjustable basket. Raise it every round according to rules of, oh I don't know, pole-vaulting. Whoever dunks on the highest basket in least attempts wins. I think it would be interesting maybe once every five years. Who would take it? The "lumbering" giants? The smaller jack-rabbits?
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#36 » by CeltsfanSinceBirth » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:48 pm

I think you get one, maybe two, really good dunk contests every decade, and the rest are kind of bland. The only ones that stand out to me are 1986 (Spud Webb....as a kid, I really thought you needed to be at least 6'3 to dunk), 1988 (MJ vs Nique - 2 of the best scorers in the league), 2000 (VC resurrected the event), and 2016 (Gordon vs Levine).

I think people need to temper their expectations for the event because it's so tough doing something new every year. Plus these guys are NBA players. They really shouldn't be spending too much time working on new dunks anyways. If I want to watch some crazy stuff, I'll watch pro-dunkers on Youtube - guy who don't get paid to do anything else but dunk. Even the new dunks we see in the NBA contest have already been done on Youtube already.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#37 » by NbaAllDay » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:50 pm

Bring in a wildcard dunker.

If you had someone like Jordan Kilganon come and dunk you would generate a lot of buzz.

Otherwise it will never evolve or generate that kind if excitement anymore.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#38 » by dhsilv2 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:51 pm

gpoon wrote:
6ixSideSniper wrote:
kulaz3000 wrote:The biggest issue isn't neccarily the dunks, though it is a massive component, but that the big time stars are seemingly dodging it unlike in the past.

I still don't understand why LeBron never decided to compete in it. Sure, he may have never won it, but who cares. There were some really great players who lost in the dunk competition and 3 point competition, and it didn't diminish their legacy. Hell, Jordan once competed in the 3 point contest and stunk it up, no one ever talks about that. It would have been amazing just to see LeBron compete and it would have garnered plenty of buzz.

The league needs to do everything they can to get Zion to compete.


This.

As soon as the stars decided that the Dunk contest was no longer prestigious and left it to rookies and sophomores, the quality had taken a huge hit.

Not too long ago, MJ, Kobe, VC, Iverson, hell Tracy McGrady all competed in the dunk contest and really took a lot of pride in trying to take it.

People don’t care just about who can do the best dunk, we want to see the best players in the league compete amongst each other to see who’s the best dunker out of them. If fans wanted to purely see hard-to-do dunks by anybody, there’s a ton of footage of that on YouTube and amateur dunk contests.


What year did Iverson do the dunk contest?


Iverson had an injury and missed it. I believe he was seen as the favorite going into the one that Kobe won...do NOT quote me on my timeline there.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#39 » by dhsilv2 » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:53 pm

in all honesty, they were NEVER good. The highlights back in the late 90's or maybe early 00's where they removed all the misses and made it into these suspenseful battle of wills, those made the dunk contests seem like they were good. Reality was they were always boring live.
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Re: Did the dunk contest get boring or did i just get old 

Post#40 » by NbaAllDay » Wed Aug 14, 2019 1:53 pm

CeltsfanSinceBirth wrote:I think you get one, maybe two, really good dunk contests every decade, and the rest are kind of bland. The only ones that stand out to me are 1986 (Spud Webb....as a kid, I really thought you needed to be at least 6'3 to dunk), 1988 (MJ vs Nique - 2 of the best scorers in the league), 2000 (VC resurrected the event), and 2016 (Gordon vs Levine).

I think people need to temper their expectations for the event because it's so tough doing something new every year. Plus these guys are NBA players. They really shouldn't be spending too much time working on new dunks anyways. If I want to watch some crazy stuff, I'll watch pro-dunkers on Youtube - guy who don't get paid to do anything else but dunk. Even the new dunks we see in the NBA contest have already been done on Youtube already.


I've seen a dunk video by a pro dunker who pretty much did every dunk from I believe the 2018 dunk contest in one attempt. When you have people you can see do that on youtube then it takes away from the aura of the dunk contest.

Whereas you wont see people outclass MBA players like that at the 3 point contest (bot like the dunks anyhow) or even the skills challenges or All star games.

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