Kobe wasn't that creative. I'll label 1996 as one of the weakest dunk contest, competitor wise. The Vince-McGrady-Francis dunk contest was probably the best there ever was and there ever will be. Vince Carter's dunks alone took the cake, but some of the creativity by the healthy and young McGrady and Francis was just pure art and entertainment.
I've answered this plenty times. The most you can do is get another 3-5 years with the BEST idea. And there HAS to be stars. Otherwise, the dunk contest is not a PRIME TIME event anymore. Guys are doing between the legs dunks during pre-game warmups now. Seen just about everything they can do within the less than 2 seconds off the ground. None of the dunk contests in other lower leagues get any promotion. They just kinda happen. You watch them on ESPN2 during an off day as time filler. Not as some main event like Floyd Mayweather vs Sugar Shane Mosley. The NBA dunk contest gets way too much coverage for so little action.
Forget about the slam dunk contest being the premiere event (with exceptions to the allstar game itself). It should evolve into a novelty event where the best and1 and street ballers in the world compete. Streetball dunk contests have been better than the NBA dunk contest for years now. If you want an entertaining show at allstar weekend, just invite the best athletic dunkers in the world (most of them won't be in the NBA because most athletic freaks just don't have the drive that nba players do).
Replace it with a 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 tournament. Enough with the turn-based games geared for little kids. I think most fans want to see real, competitive basketball.
Interesting idea. But you already have the rookie-sophomore game, the celebrity game, the all-star game... what do you base the 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 tournament on? Are they NBA players? Obviously you can't make the teams out of the best players because they are already in the game. It might be interesting to have players that are on the same team play... but then you still run into the same "who do you invite" problem. Inviting someone that's in the all-star game is probably unfair because that's extra effort that they have to put out. I can't think of how to solve these problems, but it's an interesting idea if you can figure something out. Here's my idea: I was always interested in them bringing HORSE to the ASG weekend. It's still a "turn based game", but I think you could be FAR more creative with HORSE shots than you could with a slam dunk competition. And I've talked with people about this... and they always bring up that HORSE takes too long because it has no time-limit, and it's virtually unteleviseable. And I always say the same thing... you have to change the rules so that the games will always last the same amount of time. What you do is you run the game like they do trick shot pool, if you've ever seen them show that on ESPN2 before. Say you have 2 players (it could be more than 2 even... probably should be more than 2 actually). Each player has X number of shots they take, and they get two tries to make their shot (this would give players incentive to go for trickier shots). After you try to make your shot in two tries, your opponent gets a chance to make "your shot" in two attempts. If you make your shot within two attempts, you get a point. Same for your opponent. You do the same for all players. For example, a game might go like this: 3 players Player 1 tries his shot (2 attempts, if successful you get a point) Player 2 tries player 1s shot (2 attempts, if successful you get a point) Player 3 tries player 2s shot (2 attempts, if successful you get a point) Player 2 tries his shot Player 1 tries player 2s shot Player 3 tries player 2s shot Player 3 tries his shot Player 1 tries player 3s shot Player 2 tries player 3s shot That's just one round of play, but you get to see three different trick shots per round. So say you just had four rounds, that would be twelve shots. At the end you tally who has the most points. And that person wins. There might be some issues with the presentation of this event but it's things that can be worked out IMO.
Find the best dunkers from around the country. Not necessarily pertaining to NBA. AND-1, College, High School, etc. Streetball players tend to be more creative than NBA players.
I was just about to post this idea, before I saw your post.<p>I think it would be great to have D-league and And1 players in the competition. I think they need to change it from an individual event to a team competition. Have 4 NBA players to go up against the 4 others (D-League, And1 etc..).<p>I also think they need to go back to the old rules. Instead of 1 minute to make a dunk, everyone needs to only get 2 chances to make a dunk. Because to me it starts to get boring when you see a guy miss 6 dunks in a minute (Nate Robinson).<p>As you stated this might not bring the best NBA dunkers out, but give it 2 yrs, and when the And1 guys are blowing the NBA players off the court, and it is all over ESPN and guys start hearing the trash talk as they walk down street, it will temp the best to come out (see Olympics).
Here's another idea.. Eradicate the dunk contest. Copy and paste OP's idea for in-game fouls. I think I've been watching too much slam ball on youtube. Basically when someone fouls a player in the act of shooting, instead of 2 free throws, have a contested dunk off. Less fouls? maybe. Injuries? definitely. Win? yes. However you spin it, it's still better than that one forgettable year when they had the wheel of fortune on the dunk contest where players had to mimic a great dunk from the past.
I like the idea of going back to the 2 attempt limit. After 2/3 missed attempts, the dunk loses its surprise factor so that even if the player makes the nasty dunk, it doesn't come off as nice. This way, players attempt dunks w/in their abilities.
The dunk contest isn't as good anymore because it's hard to be creative dunk wise when just about every dunk has been done.
lol frederick weis...although if he did try to jump to block it, probably would've undercut carter and carter would've gotten hurt
how about instead of a dunk contest we get lebron playing durant one on one winner players the winner of kobe vs wade that will be way more exciting than the crap of a contest we have now
I'd heard they had done something like this. But it wasn't live because games tend to take too long. And it was probably actually HORSE, and not the rules I was talking about. The way it is now, it seems like it encourages less creativity. You need at least 5 misses from the other players to even win the game. No one is going to spend extra time practicing a complex shot like they would for the Dunk Contest. If you just changed the rules to give each player four different shots and then every other player gets to try and make the same shot... that gives people incentive to get creative. If you allowed them to involve props, the possibilities are almost endless.
This is going a little off topic, but I seriously think we should just do away with free throws and go to a penalty box system like they have for Hockey and Lacrosse (Lacrosse actually does a 30 second penalty rule... I'd like to see that in the NBA specifically). I know it sounds stupid, and I know they probably won't do it. But I'd rather see 5 on 4 offense than see some guy shoot two open shots. And the team still gets a chance to play defense and prevent a basket, even if they are less likely to succeed.
