NBA Allstar Weekend is just days away and NBA fans can't wait until the festivities start. If you’re a fan like me you watch everything, the NBA Celebrity Game, Allstar Saturday, the Rookie Allstar Game, and the NBA Allstar Game. It's not called "Allstar Weekend" for nothing; the entire weekend is going to be exciting from Friday to Sunday night. The Allstar Weekend has changed a lot though in recent years, and that is because of the falling off of the Slam Dunk Contest. It used to be that the Slam Dunk Contest was a main event on par or even above the Allstar Game. Many NBA fans can remember the epic Slam Dunk contests of the late 1980s involving Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, and Spud Webb. Dr. J is known worldwide for some of his epic dunks in dunk contests in the 70s and 80s. The Dunk Contest used to be "The Event" now it’s just an event.
The main reason that the Slam Dunk Contest isn't so exciting these days is because the best players aren't in it. In the late 1980s, Jordan, Wilkins and Webb were some of the best players in the league and they were facing off against each other in the dunk contest. Nowadays we are lucky to get one star player, and even if we do the other participants aren't up to that stars caliber. The last few notable dunk contests involved only one great player, Dwight Howard in 2009, Vince Carter in 2001, but there was never another start player involved. Even this year there is the much hyped and anticipated Blake Griffin, who has electrified us all year with some amazing dunks, but there is no one else in this year’s contest that can come close to his star power. The league needs to get a true star player showdown if it ever wants to revive the Slam Dunk Contest. For photos from the NBA Dunk contest click here.
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