2016 Dunk Contest: One to Remember

[OmniStrife]

why are you always a retard

[2swift4u]

Jordan-Wilkins 88' had an aura of a heavyweight championship fight! You had to be there to feel it.

I know what you mean, but it doesn't make the dunks better. Look at the tape and you'll see those dunks weren't as great as they look on posters now. Zack and Aaron's dunks this year were on a whole different level. Even better than Carter's dunks and to me he is the GOAT dunker. So all the nostalgia aside, this was the best dunk contest ever. Not the biggest names, but the best dunks.

[Showtime80']

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA-l1K01olc

Watch the first two minutes of this video to see what I'm talking about, that contest meant something, it was a battle of 2 of the top 5 players in the WORLD at that moment at the peak of their dunking powers! No props, no stupid teammates jumping on the sidelines, no ridiculous entrances, no light shows, no BS!!! Just straight up battle!

As far as the difficulty of dunks go, you're right but I've seen internet dunkers do better dunks than those in 88 or last Saturday night. The side stories and the players involved are what made 1988 special.

Besides how much practice on their dunk "routines"do you think Jordan-Wilkins did versus Lavine-Gordon?!? Those two scrubs look like they rehearsed those dunks just as much as practicing free throws!

Tell Jordan and Dominique in 1987 to just concentrate on the dunk contest with their athleticism and leaping ability and I'm sure they could've come up with even better stuff!

[Goro]

Jordan-Wilkins 88' had an aura of a heavyweight championship fight! You had to be there to feel it.

Are you saying you were there?

[Showtime80']

Glued to the TV watching TBS!

[Rake2204]

Are you saying you were there?

I'm guessing he means it was special to witness as it was happening. I'm not sure I quite understood that angle until I experienced the 2000 dunk contest firsthand.

It's more than possible to appreciate a contest for all it provided in hindsight, but some folks who weren't there don't know any better, even if they think they do. Perhaps witnessing the 2016 contest firsthand will help many kind of understand what certain past dunk contest moments were actually like.

For instance, I've seen some folks downplay Carter's elbow dunk in 2000, citing how so many people have done it since and even guys like Blake Griffin have added additional variables to the dunk (off-the-backboard). Those fellows are missing the point. To witness ground zero of a dunking revolution creates an indelible moment that's not going to be easily surpassed the moment someone completes a technically better dunk.

Similarly, the Wilkins-Jordan battle doesn't hold a pile full of dunks that have never been topped. Quite the opposite, in fact. But all the aspects that go in to making a dunk contest spectacular were there, and then some. Sometimes watching great dunks is enough. Sometimes watching an epic battle between two of the game's best as they perform certain dunks with a unique style in front of one man's home city can take it to the next level and keep it there, even if better dunks are performed years later.

TL;DR - Sometimes the moment is highly underrated when it comes to looking at dunk contests in hindsight. The technicality of dunks should progress year-by-year (or five years by five years to give it some space). But that doesn't necessarily make every new year's dunk contest the best ever.

For example, compare the 2015 contest to the 2016 contest. 2015 featured some nasty LaVine dunks that'd never been done in the NBA contest (same for Victor Oladipo, actually). But the 2016 contest blew last year's out of the water because it went beyond the technicality of the dunk completed — it was about a head-to-head battle, a wild 50-streak, each dunker's accuracy, Gordon's swagger, etc. And it'll hold its place in history even as the dunks are inevitably surpassed.

[Showtime80']

That's a perfect post Rake!

I'm not denying the creativity in this year's contest was OFF THE CHARTS and very entertaining but it didn't have the emotional investment and intensity the 88' contest had, not by a long shot.

That's why people basically CLAMMORED for Kobe, Vince, McGrady and LeBron to be in the dunk contest back in the mid 2000's because they were superstars and people would've been holding their breath on every one of their dunks even though Jason Richardson was probably more creative than all of them, nobody cared about J-Rich!

What Lavine-Gordon did the other night would've been just as easily duplicated by the dude who dunked in jeans and three other guys from the internet because these guys ARE NOT STARS and never will be!