NBA fan tries to raise $1 million to get LeBron James in dunk contest

Nov. 3, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) dunks past Denver Nuggets small forward Danilo Gallinari (8) during the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Heat won 119-116. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /

LeBron James has never entered a dunk contest and one fan is trying to change that by raising $1 million to donate to James’ charity.

When James entered the NBA draft in 2003, he has become one of the league’s most popular athletes. Ever since, fans can all reminisce James throwing down one of his ferocious dunks leaving them in awe for years. Those fans in turn want James to take his talents to the NBA slam-dunk contest during all-star weekend. Seems reasonable.

But as you know, James never dunked. Last year, according to Royce Young of CBS Sports, James was confronted and asked why he never considered dunking, in the slam-dunk contest.

"“It’s not me,” he said. “I’m not a dunk contest type of guy. I’m an in-game dunker. I kind of improvise during the game.”"

But doesn’t everyone have a price? What if the prize was a $1 million dollars to the winner?

"“Then I’d reconsider,” he said “Wouldn’t you?”"

According to Sam Laird of Mashable, one fan has taken James seriously. That fan, twenty-eight-year-old, Chris Thomas, is trying to get James to reconsider.

Thomas has started a crowd funding campaigned to get the $1 million in pledges. If he raises the money, and if James dunks, the money would simply be donated to James’ charity organization, the LeBron James Family Foundation. The king doesn’t even have to win the contest. If however James does decline to the offer and doesn’t dunk, Thomas said the money would go back to the donors therefore nobody loses a nickel.

The twenty-eight-year-old spoke told them where the idea originated for his campaign.

"“I started thinking about how to execute the idea,” he says. “Prior to a few years ago, a mechanism to do something like this didn’t even exist.”"

With the popularity and growth of crowd funding websites, Thomas said the idea for his campaign was easy. The fundraiser has started a bit slowly, raising just over $3,000, but he still remains hopeful.

"“We’ll raise as much as possible, whether that’s $50,000, $500,000 or $5 million,” he says. “Whatever aggregate amount is raised, I’ll contact the foundation and anyone else associated with LeBron, say ‘take or leave it’ and see what happens.”"

Nonetheless, according to CBSSports, James has even stated health concerns, saying he doesn’t want to risk an injury at his age.

"“It’s over with. I’m getting too old.”“There were times when I wanted to do it. But I came into All-Star Weekend a few times banged up, and I didn’t want to risk further injury.”"

The idea does seem crazy but if James has a soft spot, it has to be in his foundation that he’s serious about. He even put together The Decision to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of America and who can forget last week when the King embraced a fan for shooting a half court shot to win $75,000 for the same charity.

Ultimately, Social media is a huge part in our lives and has made fundraising more accessible than ever. The question now is, how many people would actually donate to the fundraiser just to see LeBron dunk in the NBA dunk contest? Would you?