LeBron James, the new all-time scoring record holder has always shied away from the dunk contest. Not that it isn’t in him to win, but probably because of how low-scale the event is. Over the years, the luster of the dunk contest has faded.
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It went from having Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant as winners to… does anyone even remember who the winner from the 2022 Dunk Contest was? Yes, nobody does.
The sheer small-scale nature of the event means that big names don’t want to participate. But it wasn’t that long ago when it was a spectacle.
Throw it back to 2000 and you will remember Vince Carter’s iconic “Honey Dip” dunk. The one that won him the contest. And it was just as recently as 2016 when we had the famous Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon square off.
But times have changed and while the big names might not make a comeback to the contest anytime soon; the NBA had made attempts. Carter himself revealed that the NBA wanted to bring big names.
Also read: How Scottie Pippen Was The Mastermind Behind Michael Jordan’s Last Shot With the Chicago Bulls
Vince carter, the 2000 Dunk Contest winner reveals NBA wanted to pay big money to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant
Yes, in a last-ditch effort, the NBA wanted to pay LeBron James and Kobe Bryant to participate in the dunk contest. How much you ask?
As per Carter, the figure was $1,000,000! And he himself would also get that much for taking part in the contest. Carter had this to say,
“they threw around some names, I remember it was LeBron, Kobe, T-Mac—my name was thrown in there of course, and it was a few other people for $1 million. But you obviously couldn’t get the commitment of everyone to do it.”
The value of a million and the decline of the dunk contest
So to promote an event that has been losing its charm over the years, what does the NBA do? Pay their best players, of course! And while that tactic didn’t work, it is important to remember the scale of this gesture.
This was when Vince Carter was still in good health, so we can safely assume this pitch is well over 15 years ago and back then a million Dollars was far more valuable than it is today.
What’s more, since that point in time, the Dunk Contest has lost a lot of importance. This year, a G-League player, Mac McClung is participating. And while the 76ers used this as a PR stunt and gave him a 10-day contract, we all know, the reality is that the contest will be underwhelming. Let’s hope this writer’s words are proven wrong.
