Bretly (flickr)
The 2012 Dunk Contest was awful.
Oh sure, there were a few gorgeous and spectacular dunks. Jeremy Evans grabbed two balls out of the air and flushed them down. Paul George had that weird slap the backboard and come up on the other side of the rim slam.
But that all gets lost amidst the sea of relentless nonsense that swept over the event. Mercifully there was no choir giving us a serenade of “I Believe I Can Fly” as Blake Griffin soared over the hood of an automobile, but in many ways this event was worse than last year’s and any before it.
For the last several years, the contest has struggled to maintain relevancy as a growing chorus sings the tune that “all the dunks have been done. There’s nothing new.” Well, that’s not true. We’ve seen Iguodala, Dwight, DeMar and McGee deliver stellar, mind-boggling dunks, sometimes with the aid of props, but they were accessories more than anything. The dunk was still the essence.
But the props were a sign of trouble lurking ahead. Dwight’s Superman cape and Nate Robinson dunking over Spud Webb signaled a loss of spontaneity in favor of rigidity, becoming scripted. The panel of judges filled with mostly ex-dunkers, who sometimes were too hard on the current crop, was initially cut out of deciding the the final round and this year was axed altogether.
Because when you can decide something by text message vote, you just have to do it.
And this has become the problem with the Dunk Contest. The Essence of the Dunk is no longer what is being marketed, sold and conveyed through this contest. The joyful, whimsical and mysterious debut of the contest in the ABA’s last All-Star Game was the Essence of the Dunk pure and beautiful. Players came out at halftime of the game to watch like school kids as Dr. J, David Thompson, Artis Gilmore and others threw down. No one knew what to expect and got more than they bargained for.
And it took about 10 minutes for all 5 dunkers to do their thing. Tension, build up, climax, winner.
Eight years later in 1984, the contest was revived in the NBA and this time the young upstart Larry Nance shocked everyone with his array of Gumby dunks while Dr. J still delivered at his advancing age. And the twists and surprises kept coming: Nique vs. Jordan, Spud Webb, Kenny Walker, Harold Miner, J.R. Rider, Vince Carter, Jason Richardson…
And make no mistake, Jeremy Evans, Paul George and others are every bit as creative as these previous dunkers. What they don’t have is the freedom to just dunk. They now must tie in a Kia. Dunk over Puff Daddy. Go to the local junior college for quick acting lessons. Instead of watching Dominique swing a wind mill dunk and then see Jordan fly-in for a sideways jam, today’s NBA would have had Air Jordan do a preview skit with Andrew Dice Clay and the Human Highlight Film dunk over Kool Moe Dee.
It sounds funny, but only because it’s absurd. Let’s heed the words of Kool Moe Dee and let the Dunk Contest once again assume its youthful spirit that was as free and exciting as the Wild Wild West.
[flash www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK8XAFm7cYw w=400 h=300]
