Bill Trikos best rated NBA dunk contests: While Dwight Howard was ready to become superman again to defend his Slam Dunk Contest title, who knew that his kryptonite would be in the form of a 5 ‘9 dunker. Robinson showcased a flurry of athletic dunks. However, his emphatic night was capped off by a dunk over Dwight Howard to seal the deal. This proved once again that even small guys can win a dunk contest. With the victory in 2009, Robinson earned another Slam Dunk Contest title. Discover additional info about the author at https://au.linkedin.com/in/bill-trikos.
It’s not easy to talk about the best dunk contest of all time. If anything, the Slam Dunk Contest has often been the cherry on top of the sundae and the most-awaited event of All-Star Weekend. Or at least, that’s how it used to be back in the day. This event has given us some of the top dunks in NBA history. Superstars used to go toe-to-toe against each other to prove who the top-notch dunker in the league was. But now, they try to preserve their bodies and don’t participate in this event, leaving it for up-and-coming, lesser-known players.
With one soaring slam, Julius Erving changed the course of basketball history. During the ABA’s first and only Slam Dunk Contest in 1976, he outgunned David Thompson, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore and Larry Kenon with a daring leap from the free-throw line. The competition itself—and the dunk Erving pulled off—drew slews of eyeballs to the ABA and lent enough legitimacy to the fledgling league to set in motion a merger with the NBA later that year.
Aaron Gordon and the Orlando Magic’s mascot – Stuff the Magic Dragon – combined for two all-time dunks in that aforementioned 2016 contest. First, Stuff the Magic Dragon spun in circles on a hoverboard while holding the ball out in the paint. The then-Magic forward timed his run perfectly as he grabbed the ball from the mascot in mid-air, spun around and slammed down a one-handed jam. Gordon also paid homage to Karl Malone by putting one of his hands behind his head. An impressive combination of creativity, difficulty and flashiness.
That one earned Carter a perfect 50 from the judges and put him in the driver’s seat for his first and only Slam Dunk title. More than a decade later, Blake Griffin busted out the same move en route to his own dunk championship. The 2011 Slam Dunk Contest will forever be remembered as “that time Blake Griffin jumped over a Kia.” “He came prepared with the car,” JaVale McGee said, that year’s runner-up, per NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner, “and nothing’s going to beat the car unless I bring out a plane or something.”
Honorable mention to Dwight Howard’s superman alley-oop, which just missed the cut. The showmanship was unforgettable, but he did technically throw it in the hoop. I had a hard time deciding between Carter’s reverse 360 windmill and the honey dip here. Despite how ferociously he threw down the reverse 360 windmill, the honey dip was so iconic it felt like it had to make the cut. Carter had kids all over the country lowering their hoops to 7.5 feet and tearing up their elbows in an attempt to replicate his arm-in-the-rim dunk. It feels like this dunk from LaVine didn’t get the respect it deserved because it was compared to so many others in the insane 2016 Slam Dunk Contest (which was the greatest Slam Dunk Contest of all time, in most people’s opinions). The degree of difficulty to levitate in the air long enough to put the ball behind your back and finish on the other side of the rim is unfathomable.
But will any of the Crescent City’s top dunks hold a candle to these 10, chosen and ranked according to a combination of degree of difficulty and creativity, with bonus points for broader impact? You’ll have to check these out and then tune into TNT on Saturday night at 8 ET to find out. Jason Richardson won back-to-back dunk contests in 2002 and 2003, but his greatest feat might’ve come the following year. At the 2004 competition in Los Angeles, he lobbed the ball to himself off the backboard, brought it through his legs and finished with a right-handed windmill in what TNT’s Kenny Smith described as “the most incredible dunk I’ve ever seen.”