Carncross Commentary: What happened to the NBA Dunk Contest?

The NBA Dunk Contest was the worst part about the Saturday Feb. 19 events.

The contest was the last event following the 3-point contest which saw Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns win and the skills competition which was won by team Cavs who had guard Darius Garland, center Jarrett Allen and power forward Evan Mobley who play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

New York Knicks power forward Obi Toppin, Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green, Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony and Golden State Warriors guard Juan Toscano-Anderson were the competitors in the most lack luster dunk contest ever.

It started out with the coolest part when Anthony put on a pair of Timberland boots and tried to do a windmill dunk from his father Greg Anthony who was holding his ball. It took him a couple tries but he eventually got it. He received a 40-point score from five judges which was very generous.

Next was Toscano-Anderson who tied for the highest score in the first round with his dunk over teammate and All-Star Andrew Wiggins. He got a score of 44-points which was basically where the dunk belonged. It was not good nor was it great.  

Toppin was next as he jumped over someone who I didn’t know, but I thought it was Fat Joe and one of my friends said “I thought Fat Joe was dead.” I don’t blame him for thinking that. Toppin scored a 44-point dunk that took him a couple tries but he might’ve gotten a higher score on the first attempt.

Green was the last to go and I honestly just wish he didn’t go at all. It took him nine tries to do one single dunk. He scored the worst out of the first round and didn’t move on.

In Toppin’s second dunk he threw it off the backboard, then went in between his legs and reverse dunked. This may sound like a lot, but it was probably the best dunk of the evening. No one else stood out or were even good.

All four of them went seven-for-25 on their attempts. That is a 28% from four people. Not a single person made it on the first attempt.

The final round was between underdog Toscano-Anderson and Toppin which was a very lack luster finale.

Toscano-Anderson went first in the final round where he did two throw back dunks to former NBA players Vince Carter and Jason Richardson. The Carter dunk was the honey dip dunk, but he failed to recreate it fully. The Richardson dunk saw Toscano-Anderson put on Richardson’s Golden State Warriors jersey from his dunk contest victory. He failed to recreate the dunk but at least the jersey was cool.

Toppin just had to do some simple things to win the event which is all he really did. He was definitely the best person in the contest by a mile. He did not do anything fancy compared to Toscano-Anderson, but he really didn’t need to.

This was probably the worst dunk contest of all time. It was the first time since 2001 that none of the competitors got a score of 50.

I just want to know what happened to the dunk contest? Why was it so bad this year? The world may never know.