The All-Star Weekend's Slam Dunk Contest used to be one of the event's crown jewels, a platform where the league's best players and high flyers converged to thrill fans with their eye-popping slam dunks. As a matter of fact, some of the league's finest made names for themselves in this competition: Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant, and Vince Carter all hoisted the trophy and now have their names etched in basketball lore.
However, in recent years, the Slam Dunk Contest has lost some of its luster. Younger players are shying away from competing. Despite having incredible athleticism that allows them to perform jaw-dropping dunks in games, many of today's stars have elected to skip the event altogether.
Former Slam Dunk Contest winner Josh Smith recently spoke to Quentin Richardson and Darium Miles on the "Knuckleheads" podcast to discuss why he believes this is the case.
Players don't grasp its significance
According to Smith, who won the contest in 2005 when he was a rookie on the Atlanta Hawks, one reason players hesitate to enter is that they think they're too "cool" for it.
"There's no veterans to let them know, 'Hey man, you're being too cool. Tone down your coolness, man,'" Smith asserted.
"J-Smoove" shared he had veteran power forward Kenyon Martin, who was on the Denver Nuggets then, encourage him to compete in the dunk contest, saying he would cherish it later on when he got older.
"You know, some players need to be told, 'Hey man, look, you need to just do this because it's gonna be really cool to look back on when you get older, and you'll be thankful to yourself that you did this,'" Josh stated.
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MJ joined, but LBJ never did
Smith furthered that when asked to join the dunk contest, he didn't give it much thought, saying it was an honor to be invited considering the names of the players who competed in it before.
"I mean, come on, Jordan was in the dunk contest—that's the greatest of all time. Kobe was in it, too. These are the guys we're talking about when we say, 'Who's your favorite? Who's the best player?' They're naming these guys," Josh emphasized .
On the other hand, the former All-Defensive Team member surmised that another prominent reason for elite players' absence from the dunk contest is LeBron James ' non-participation. Many of today's NBA players look up to "The King," and his decision not to participate may have influenced their choices.
"I think, you know, a lot of these guys' GOAT is LeBron too, and LeBron never did it. So it might be the era of guys seeing him as their GOAT and thinking, 'Well, he didn't do it, so I don't have to do it.' I don't know if it's copying your GOAT, or what. Because in our era, we thought it was dope to get in a dunk contest," Josh expressed.
Considering the fact that the winner of the last two dunk contests—Mac McClung—has played in only four games in his entire career, it may be a while before we see a big-name NBA player return to the dunk contest.
Related: Josh Smith picks his four best big man dunkers in NBA history: "Shawn Kemp, he number one"
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