The five best NBA Dunk Contests ever

4. 1986

Participants: Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, Terence Stansbury, Gerald Wilkins, Jerome Kersey, Roy Hinson, Paul Pressey, Terry Tyler

While many were wanting to see a rematch between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins, Jordan was out with an injury and couldn’t participate and while this was another solid field, there didn’t seem to be anybody that was in Dominique’s league. Well, as it turns out it was his own teammate that would push him to the limit that night in Dallas.

Just the mere presence of 5-foot-7 Spud Webb was enough to get the crowd excited as nobody really thought he could compete against these guys but he certainly proved everybody wrong from the get-go by posting scores of 46, 48 and 47 in the opening round to move into the semifinals where Dominique was already waiting due to his bye from winning the 1985 contest. They’d be joined by Terence Stansbury, who put on another great show and is too often overlooked from these early contests, and Dominique’s brother, Gerald Wilkins. Gerald had some trouble in the second round and had no chance while Stansbury once again came up just a little bit short in an effort to get to the finals. This was the ‘Nique and Spud show and everybody knew it.

Given the size and stature of these two guys, the David and Goliath theme was pretty easy to pick up on here and even with the crowd behind Webb, a Dallas native, it didn’t seem possible that he could maintain the level of consistency he’d achieved the first two rounds. But once again, he proved that to be untrue as he kept answering the challenges set by Dominique’s thunderous dunks that always made you think the whole rim was going to come down at some point. But Spud finished his teammate off with a pass to himself off the backboard for a one-handed slam that brought the house down, giving him his second 50 of the finals and taking home the title.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d like to put the 2008 battle between Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard in this spot but nobody had ever seen anything like this before. That’s why it’s here.