On Thursday, after much speculation, the NBA announced the participants for the 2018 slam dunk contest.
The field is headlined by Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic) and Victor Oladipo (Indiana Pacers), who have each appeared in the marquee event of all-star Saturday night before, along with first-time entrants Larry Nance Jr. (Los Angeles Lakers) and rookie Dennis Smith Jr. (Dallas Mavericks).
The dunk contest is a hit-or-miss event if there ever was one. It requires a special combination of excitement from fans in the building and dunkers who are legitimately competitive and motivated to test their athletic boundaries.
When it misses, like last year’s contest did (can you even name the winner? It was Glenn Robinson III, who had some nice dunks during an otherwise snooze-worthy event) it feels like such a disappointment because we know how thrilling a good dunk contest can be.
The 2016 dunk contest in Toronto a year earlier, for example, was, excuse my language, !*$@!@* incredible. Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon’s multi-round dunk-off reached the highest expectations for an event in which we’re supposed to be reminded of precisely why NBA players are next-level athletes.
So it can be a bit of a coin flip, and it might not be until the first or second round gets underway when we know what kind of show we’ll be in store for.
Based on the contestants this time around, we should be juuuuuust fine.
Here’s a closer look at the field:
The Contest Veteran
This will be the third straight appearance for Aaron Gordon, who shocked the world when he went toe-to-toe with LaVine in Toronto and established himself as the NBA’s premier dunk contest big man. Apart from the unreal bounce and sheer athleticism that got him drafted fourth overall in 2014, Gordon also brings a creativity and flair to his contest dunks.
Two years later, and I’m still recovering from this:
He couldn’t quite recapture the magic (pun: intended) last year, but will complete the trilogy in Los Angeles in two weeks, and I can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve this time around.
The Second Chance
Victor Oladipo is in the midst of a breakout season, averaging over 23 points per game in his first season with the Pacers (previous career high? 18 ppg four seasons ago) and will be appearing in his first all-star game.
One of the great in-game dunkers in the NBA, Oladipo is a natural choice for an event like this. If you can do this, you belong in the dunk contest:
The 2016-2017 NBA Dunk of the Year! Congratulations to Victor Oladipo! #NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/46rmUqaLiD
— NBA UK (@NBAUK) June 27, 2017
But here’s the thing: Oladipo has also been in the dunk contest before— in 2015 in Brooklyn— and was, in my opinion, a legitimate dissapointment. Maybe it’s because my expectations were so high, but he’ll get a mulligan this year and should be one of the fan favourites.
The Legacy Dunker
You’ll hear about this a lot in the coming weeks, but the senior Nance won the 1984 dunk contest, beating out the luminaries like Julius Erving and Dominique Wilkins in the process, so expect to see some sort of tribute to pops from Nance Jr. during all-star weekend.
But the Lakers forward is an accomplished dunker in his own right, and in his third season has already earned a reputation for putting opponents on posters.
https://twitter.com/NBAAllStar/status/959248774429159424
The New Sheriff In Town
Leading up to the 2017 NBA Draft, one of the terms you’d often hear to describe point guard Dennis Smith Jr. was “future dunk contest winner.” And, thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to put that to the test. My early pick to win it all, Smith Jr. can fly.
I’m not saying Smith Jr. is Vince Carter or anything like that, but he absolutely possess that kind of unfathomable, once-in-a-decade type of talent capable of stealing the show.
He only has 44 NBA games under his belt but has already built an impressive demo reel of dunks:
The dunk contest goes down Saturday, February 17th. This should be a good one. Check back to Sportsnet.ca for a thorough preview as all-star weekend approaches.
