During the NBA All-Star season, Dunk contest has always been the favorite topic on every debate with questions on why the contest sucks and how to fix it, allegedly rigged editions, and why some NBA stars that are great dunkers chose not to participate. Follow for more 12BET Mobile NBA updates and news here!
Here, we will lay out the three reasons and three solutions that the NBA should look for in addressing the decline of popularity of the Dunk Contest. For more dunk all stars related stories here!
From the last six or five seasons, the Dunk contest has been on a decline in popularity since its revival in the 2015 edition where we saw the young Zach Lavine do an insane package of dunks and leveled up the contest. And in 2016, where we also saw the Aaron Gordon vs. Zach Lavine showdown and gave us an unforgettable night with Gordon dunking over the rotating mascot, Lavine doing a windmill dunk from the free-throw territory. But over the years, it regressed and it was obviously witnessed in the recent 2022 Slam Dunk Contest where most of the participants didn’t look ready and missed most of their attempts and just settled for ordinary dunks. The known sports analyst, Stephen A. Smith calls the 2022 Dunk Contest a ‘global atrocity’. Here are the problems and the solutions that the NBA must address:
1. Raise the Prize money
Over the years, the NBA offers a prize pot of $100,000 for the Champion and $50,000 for the runners-up. Way back 2013, Magic Johnson offered $1 million to LeBron James to join and win the Dunk contest. At that time, James was still at the peak of his prime and doing insane dunks in pregame or during the game. This raises the question to the basketball world, possibly raising the prize pool will be one of the solutions to the Dunk contest crisis and to attract star players to join. According to the recent interview with Ja Morant, a Memphis guard, that no players will risk their health and safety from injury by joining the dunk contest for just $100,000 when there is a risk of losing a million dollar contract.
2. Place an actual professional dunkers as judges
In the 2020 Dunk Contest, we saw Aaron Gordon’s participation for the last time as he was vying for his first-ever title. However, his final stint went ugly and he was getting upset after the score given to his dunk by jumping over Tacko Fall and losing it to Derrick Jones Jr. by a single point. One of the judges at that time was Jones’ former Miami Heat teammate Dwayne Wade who gave 9 to Gordon’s dunk over to a simple dunk by Jones Jr., on which he gave a perfect score. This raises an issue on whether to let the former players become the judge and instead place legit dunkers that can have an in-depth look and to provide a fair score.
3. A Professional dunker vs. An NBA Player
Here, we will address the issue of competencies as we will not solely rely on star players participating to boost popularity but also adds a new round where an NBA Dunk winner will have a showdown with the best dunker in the Dunk League to have a showdown and fight for the best dunker in the World. This will possibly create a skyrocketing popularity in terms of television viewership, ticket sales, and social media engagement where many NBA fans and enthusiasts will be curious on how good the NBA player is as a dunker compared to those professional dunkers outside the league.
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