Best rated NBA slam dunk contests by Bill Trikos: At one point in the 2010s, the Slam Dunk Contest ultimately lost excitement. However, it was Zach LaVine’s performance in 2015 that brought it back to life. Including a space jam dunk and a couple of switcheroos in mid-air, LaVine displayed ultimate finesse and hang time while gliding for explosive finishes at the rim. With the contest, LaVine cemented himself as one of the best dunkers in the game by winning his first Dunk Contest Championship. See extra details about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.
Michael Jordan had many iconic dunks throughout his incredible career but notably, one of those didn’t even come in a game. His Airness wanted to get back at Dominique Wilkins for beating him three years prior, so he saved the best of his repertoire. Jordan paid homage to Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving and put together one of the top dunks in NBA history. He went baseline-to-baseline, dribbled just inside the three-point line, and took over from the free-throw line to float all the way to the rim. It was poetry in motion.
“I was trying to think of something to improvise,” he said, per the New York Daily News’ Fred Kerber. “I saw [teammate] Brad Sellers in the stands and some friends standing on the sidelines. They were all confused [about what dunk to try]. “Then I saw the man, Dr. J., who got it all started.” By paying respect to his predecessor, Jordan not only assured himself of a dunk title in Chicago but also avenged his 1985 loss to Wilkins and launched the Legend of the Jumpman into the stratosphere with one of the contest’s most iconic images.
As a second-year pro in 2006, Andre Iguodala introduced himself to a national audience with an unreal display of athleticism. Standing behind the basket, then-Philadelphia 76ers teammate Allen Iverson threw the ball off the backboard to Iguodala, who caught it, ducked under the bottom of the backcourt and slammed home a reverse jam. The dunk earned a perfect score, but Iguodala lost the competition to three-time winner Nate Robinson in controversial fashion.
You’d think that Vince Carter, arguably one of the greatest high-flying finishers in NBA history, would’ve had multiple Slam Dunk Contest trophies on his mantle. The records show, though, that Vinsanity took flight just once on All-Star Saturday. Not that he needed more chances than that. His lone appearance—at Oracle Arena in Oakland in 2000—may be the best dunk contest we’ve ever seen, in part because he pulled off tricks few (if any) had ever thought possible.
We’ve seen players throw the ball off the glass and go through the legs. We’ve seen players jump over people and dunk. Until this moment, we had never seen a player jump over someone, throw the ball off the glass and put it between their legs for a dunk. Nash deserves as much credit as Stoudemire here, but the timing and precision of this dunk help it crack the top 10. Stoudemire threw the perfect pass off the backboard and Nash delivered an even more perfect header for the 360. The Slam Dunk Contest had never seen anything like this before. All you can do is laugh when you see this dunk. Webb is 5’7. You are not supposed to be able to do 360 dunks off of a lob at that height. It looks like a video game glitch the way Webb rises up to finish this one.
2011: DeMar DeRozan’s Show Stopper: Blake Griffin’s homage to Vince Carter (and leap over a Kia) pushed him to the slam dunk title as a rookie in Los Angles, but DeMar DeRozan did his part to put on a show in his hometown. The best of the bunch: a reverse windmill jam, titled the “Show Stopper,” that earned a 50 from the judges for the Toronto Raptors wing. Dwight Howard is nothing if not a showman. At no point was that on greater display than during the 2009 Slam Dunk Contest in Phoenix, Arizona.