Dunk Contest Has Lost Its Luster

Quick, name the only three-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner?

No, not Dr. J...Nope, not Michael Jordan...Not even the "Human Highlight Film," Domenique Wilkins.

It's New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson. Yes, 5-foot 9-inch (standing on his tippy toes in his high-tops).

Yes, really.

Robinson won the 2010 NBA Slam Dunk Contest this past Saturday defeating Shannon Brown, DeMar DeRozan, and Gerald Wallace.

Wait, who, you ask?

Exactly.

Don't get me wrong, Robinson is a phenomenal athlete. A two sport star at the University of Washington, he boasts a 43.5 inch vertical, which seems conservative after watching him soar above the rim on Saturday.

But he didn't leap from the free throw line like number six. He didn’t do a reverse windmill with his tongue hanging out like number 23. And he didn’t rock the cradle and put the ball through his legs like Vin-Sanity.

In fact, the Dunk Contest has had its peaks and valleys since its inception at the 1976 ABA All-Star Game in Denver, which Julius Erving took the crown. The NBA reintroduced the Contest in 1984 with Erving's famous dunk from the free throw line highlighting the show, despite Larry Nance winning the trophy that year.

With Spud Webb, Domenique Wilkins, and M.J., the competition was at its best in the late 1980s. But with superstars unwilling to participate for fear of injury, the 1990s saw boring and unoriginal dunkers like Harold Miner (Baby Jordan), Cedric Ceballos, and even a "white" boy, Brent Barry.

The NBA went as far as eliminating the event in 1998, replacing it with a new shooting contest called "2Ball" instead. The League brought it back with a bang in 2000, with a jaw-dropping show between Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, and Steve Francis. Carter eventually triumphed.

In addition to Robinson's three wins, Dwight Howard's memorable Super Man "thrunk" (he threw it!) from the free throw line stands out in recent memory, donning full Super Man attire, cape and all. But 2010 saw another "valley" for this event, with LeBron James reneging on his declaration that he would participate, one year prior.

So, what's the answer?

Until the players have an incentive to participate, we will see this cycle repeat. David Stern can't force players to compete. An 82 game schedule is a long season, and the fear of injury, coupled with the chance to rest for a few days during the grinding season, is apparently too good to pass up for the games' superstars. But aren’t they more likely to get hurt in the All Star Game itself?

How about a significant financial reward for winning...or even for participating? Or what about holding the event in the summer...or right when the season starts in combination with the Season tip-off extravaganza?

Not likely. The NBA needs this event over All Star Weekend. It needs to showcase the talent, alongside the Three-point Shooting Contest on this weekend.

Throughout the season, the superstars “posterize” players on a nightly basis. They leap above the rim with seven-footers in their paths -- with "reckless abandon" and "No regard for human life."

Can you imagine what we would see if it was just the player one-on-one with the hoop? It would take us back to the playground days…the pick-up games as the local YMCA -- with the ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ mentality. Where ‘showing up’ the opponent is actually encouraged, not frowned upon.

I would have preferred watching the Harlem Globetrotters ridiculous show than this year’s competition.

They owe it to us. They owe it to the owners who pay their salaries. They owe it to Dr. J and Michael Jordan who started it all. They owe it to the game, and that should be enough.

I don’t know…

What I do know is that David Stern needs to act on this now. Even TNT commentator Reggie Miller took a dig at the talent display "on air" saying, "I saw guys at the Riverside Rec Center throw down better dunks than this." (Miller grew up in Riverside, California). To which Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley laughed uncontrollably into their microphones.

The crowd at the American Airlines Arena never got into it. They wanted to. They were begging to. They were waiting for that gravity-defying, show-stopping, awesome poster dunk that just never happened.

But it couldn't happen. The guys everyone wanted to see fly through the air were busy sitting front row in street clothes.

When the contest was over, and the announcers said that the final votes were being tallied between Robinson and DeRozan, you could hear the aggregated restlessness from the fans, almost as if they could not believe it was over -- and 'that' was it.

21,041 people collectively asking the men on the big stage, “That’s it?”

And the NBA could only answer, “Yeah….for now.”