The five best NBA Dunk Contests ever

3. 2000

Participants: Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Ricky Davis, Larry Hughes, Jerry Stackhouse

Trust me when I tell you that the first thing I typed when putting down the participant list was “Vince Carter, everyone else” and I promise you that is the absolute truth. If this were a list of the top NBA Dunk Contest performances, Vince Carter would be number one and it’s really not even close. Although I will say that Tracy McGrady and Steve Francis were also pretty spectacular here and it’s a little unfortunate that most people won’t ever remember that unless they go back and watch it.

This is the one that made the dunk contest relevant again and I’d argue that point with anybody. It’s not that there weren’t some great singular dunks in the 1990s but the star power that came with the ones in the ’80s had gone away and in 1998, the NBA didn’t even have a dunk contest on All-Star Weekend. And the lockout the following season knocked out the All-Star festivities altogether so this one had to be good and Carter, McGrady and Francis made sure of that. Yes, I know there were three other guys there but they didn’t really come into play here. And the crazy part is that neither Carter or McGrady really wanted to take part in it. It took a lot of convincing to get Vince in there and once he signed on, McGrady didn’t want to do it because he knew that his Raptors teammate was going to win.

A couple of days beforehand, McGrady finally caved and came out strong with a reverse slam that got the crowd into it. And Carter decided to change his dunk lineup and opened with a reverse 360 windmill that he made look so unbelievably easy. And things just went from there. McGrady scored a 49 with a two-handed windmill alley-oop and Francis scored a 50 with his best dunk of the night, a pass to himself that he caught and brought to his ankles before stuffing it home. Carter started his next dunk from behind the basket, stepped in and rose for another windmill, a jam that brought a 49 from the judges. Carter and McGrady had already ensured themselves a spot in the finals but weren’t content on just coasting in. McGrady’s third-round dunk was his best of the night as he pulled off a spinning 360 flush for his only 50 of the night. Francis missed his third dunk but found himself in the final threesome. Carter’s third dunk brought another 50 as McGrady bounced the ball to him by the basket and he grabbed it, put it through his legs and slammed it home. He actually didn’t get it right the first time but the crowd could see what he was trying to do and this was one time I really didn’t care that somebody missed.

Francis started the final round with a 43 on a leaning windmill and McGrady followed it up with a 45 with a two-hand windmill but all eyes were on Carter at this point. What could he possibly do next? Well, he managed to do something nobody had ever seen before as he sprung from the floor, cocked the ball back and jammed it home. At first, it seemed like a pretty ordinary dunk. Except his arm kept going. Yep, he’s really hanging there by the inside of his elbow. Unreal. McGrady missed his final dunk of the night and Francis did score a 48 but this contest belonged to Vince Carter and he finished things off with a two-handed dunk from just inside the free throw line, which would have looked spectacular on any other night but almost seemed ordinary after the show he had just put on. Just incredible.