NBA Dunk Contest; When will it end?

By: JC Carr

Watching the dunk contest on Saturday night hearkened me back to yesteryear.  Or at least last year.

As expected, Blake Griffin was great and for once, so were the other three participants.

Problem is, the contest is so boring.  First, it starts at 10:00pm EST and ends around 11:15pm EST.  An hour and fifteen minutes for two rounds of dunking gets to dragging on a bit.

Secondly, the contestants get an infinite amount of chances to pull off their dunks which usually takes the surprise and novelty out of it.

And lastly, and probably most importantly, we’ve seen every dunk imaginable.

Hanging on the rim with your elbow?  Vince Carter, 2000.  Dunk off the support arm? Iguodala, 2006.  Even dunking over a car?  Marko Milicic, 1997 (Hungarian All Star Game) and a few Youtube heros. Point is there are only so many things humanly possible to do in a dunk contest.

Here’s a few ideas to improve upon what has been such a great event in years past.  First, go back to the old rules.  Every attempt gets scored and you can throw out your worst score.

Second, if there are only going to be four contestants, let them all in the finals.  Limit the number of attempts and again, don’t give a time limit, give an attempt limit.  This year was a pretty competitive year and all four contestants put on a pretty good show  (Personally, I felt Ibaka got robbed on his foul line dunk).

And one more way to rekindle the excitement; Get the biggest names out there next year.  Offer up a ton of cash and recruit the big dunkers for one year.  Imagine Kobe and Lebron going head to head.  Or Blake against Dwight Howard?  Even Nate Robinson versus Russell Westbrook?  Now that would be a show worth watching.