The problem with the NBA Dunk Contest is all the cool shit has been done

The 2018 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was filled with throwbacks. Donovan Mitchell gave us a moment to remember Dr. Dunkenstein and put on a Toronto Vince Carter jersey to do a famous Toronto Vince Carter dunk. Larry Nance Jr. wore his dad’s old uniform to do his dad’s old dunk.

It’s a just reminder that most of the coolest dunks humanly possible have already been done.

One of Mitchell’s early dunks was an alley-oop off the side of the backboard while leaping over three kneeling short people (including Kevin Hart). People have dunked baseline off the side of the backboard before; people have jumped over much taller people or things on alley-oops before. (Blake Griffin jumped over a car!)

Mitchell finished with a reverse 360 windmill wearing the Carter jersey. This is beyond derivative: it’s pure mimicry. But it won him the contest over Nance Jr.’s inventive, impressive double-tap alley-oop in part because Mitchell sold it and because we all — judges included — like to be reminded of things we love, like Carter’s performance in 2000. Nostalgia sells.

Yet in the end, we’re left wanting.

There are very few ambitious dunks that haven’t been discovered. Dennis Smith Jr., who did not advance to the final round despite having the best dunk of the night, hit a reverse 360 through-the-legs hand switch.

That’s new (for the Dunk Contest, at least). But because Dunk Contest scoring is weird and Smith missed his first attempt three times, this jam becomes a relative afterthought, fueling only years of dismay from Dallas fans. (Gerald Wallace got robbed in 2002! Never forget.) It was twice the dunk that Mitchell’s finale was.

As there is so little new material to mine, dunkers resort to props and rekindling retro winners. Thank the Basketball Gods that props were mostly out this year, other than Victor Oladipo borrowing Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther mask. (That was cool.) We all remember how poorly Aaron Gordon’s drone dunk attempt went a year ago. Nothing turns a Dunk Contest bad like a bunch of props.

But this whole ode to yesterday without adding anything new is concerning. Nance did the exact same dunk his dad did years ago. Mitchell did the exact same dunk Carter did years ago. Asking more of Mitchell seems unfair — that Carter dunk destroyed us 18 years ago. Mitchell was three years old when it happened. He grew up watching old clips of Carter’s dunks. Nance has surely seen his dad’s famous dunk a few times over the years. Copying those old dunks honors them, sure. But it’s not pushing the boundaries of dunk.

The Dunk Contest isn’t in crisis, because unless it’s amazing everyone will forget about it until next February. The 2017 edition was awful — far less entertaining than the flawed 2018 vintage — but no one gave it a second thought in the past 11 months. Many had forgotten that Glenn Robinson III won it. (Guilty as charged.)

That’s why this whole debate is a bit pointless — again, guilty as charged. The Dunk Contest doesn’t actually matter unless it matters. You’ll know when it does.

Why do we critique the contest so seriously when it disappoints? Because when it’s good, it’s one of the best things in sports. Look at the 2016 Dunk Contest, the showdown between Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon. None of us will soon forget that. Those two did things that reinvented what was considered possible.

Pulling off Carter’s reverse 360 windmill takes inordinate talent and athleticism. This is absolutely no knock on Mitchell. He’s an incredible dunker, perhaps a top-5 in-game dunker right now. Mitchell is capable of putting on a show like LaVine or Gordon have. We didn’t get that on Saturday. But hey, Gordon didn’t give us an Aaron Gordon! performance in 2017. It happens. Mitchell can blow our minds in 2019.

We’ve seen it all, and coming up with a new move that knocks everyone over is really hard. But these guys should at least try that instead of repeating old favorites.

Kudos to Smith for giving it a shot. Mitchell should do it next year.

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