The NBA Dunk Contest is something that has been in steady decline for several years now. I don’t think we’ve had a good one since the Aaron Gordon/Zach Lavine days when those boys Christened All-Star Weekend with cool-ass dunks. I remember being a little boy and watching Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard go at it a couple times. Unfortunately nowadays, we only get to watch no-name scrubs that couldn’t get the crowd excited even if they spoon-fed them Molly beforehand.
Mac McLung was the star of the show tonight. He actually delivered some pretty sweet dunks and deservedly won the title. The only problem he’s not even an NBA player. They brought him up specifically to do this (thank God they did) but that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous. He might actually have been the most famous athlete in the contest though because of his viral videos in high school and college. Are we heading down a road where we can just bring athletic randos in to do the Dunk Contest? Superstars don’t seem to want to do it anymore, which is lame as fuck. Ja Morant and Zion could walk in there and do basic tomahawks and get the crowd more amped than anything that happened tonight. People always go “OHHHH” way louder when it’s a famous person for some reason. Zion said he’d consider it next year, unfortunately, he probably needs to focus on not eating himself before he can worry about a dunk contest.
The Bozo Award for the night goes to Jericho Sims. I’m not sure what this guy was smoking before the show tonight. Bro only got two dunks and did the same thing twice- just stuck his fucking elbow or shoulder in the rim or whatever. It was cool one time when Vince Carter did it 20 years ago, but now it’s basically just jumping straight up. Its especially not cool when nobody in the arena knows your name. It was a tough watch when he did it the second time, and tried to grab the piece of paper that said “50” on it. That was especially hilarious because the paper was ripped when he opened it, physical proof that he didn’t pull the dunk off to perfection. It’s even more disappointing when you realize that guy may have the biggest bunnies of all time (aside from DK Metcalf). On his first attempt he was literally looking down at the rim. He’s all bounce no brain apparently. If he had a personal dunk coach that just came up with cool shit for him to do he could’ve won in a landslide.
I’d say this year was definitley better than the last few years. Mac doing some good dunks combined with the other hilarious moments like Jericho’s brain farts and the Shaq Cam made it entertaining enough. My only solution to really fix it would be to only allow people who are involved in All-Star weekend do it. It’s ALL-STAR weekend not Average Joe weekend. I think the NBA should hire me as a consultant and pay me $250,000 a year for advice like this. I’d definitely consider leaving my 9-5 for that.
The Armchair Experts 
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