NBA Alternative All-Star Weekend 2019: The Dunk Contest
By Ian Levy
The NBA’s All-Star Weekend is a celebration of the league’s best and brightest. Unfortunately, there isn’t room for everyone who deserves it. That’s why The Step Back is planning their Alternative All-Star Weekend.
The 2019 NBA Dunk contest has been filled with worthy competitors. The athleticism is, as usual, off the charts and, as usual, the field skews a bit younger, giving us an introduction to some of the league’s next great highlight machines (hello, Miles Bridges). Still, it’s hard to look at what the league has laid out and convince yourself that you’ll see anything that you haven’t already seen before.
Here, for our Alternative Dunk Contest, we have the flexibility to both select a different crop of contributors and add a subtle tweak to the rules to make things a bit more interesting.
I will admit that, personally, the dunk contest doesn’t do much for. It is aerial gymnastics and some of the dunks are impressive but, ultimately, it’s player competing against the limits of their own vertical leap and hand-eye coordination. The dunk contest is just too far removed from an actual basketball game and the underlying significance of a dunk — an opportunity to forcefully establish athletic dominance.
And so, the 2019 Alternative Dunk Contest will be framed around the ability of each participant to dominate their opponents. Instead of an opportunity to just try whatever dunk piques their imagination, the contestants have to try and dunk each other. For each dunk attempt, the contestant will be given the ball beyond the 3-point line. A rival contestant will wait on the baseline with an opportunity to try and block the dunk.
In the first round, contestants get an opportunity to dunk on each of the other three contestants. The three contestants who complete the most dunks move on to the next round. Any ties can be settled by a dunk-off, with each contestant going back and forth until the other misses. We keep moving on until there is just one dunker left. The ability of a player to help themselves by blocking opponents adds a layer of gamesmanship but we also get a cleaner divide — there is no need for scoring, no subjectivity. You dunk or you lose.
With the rules established, here are our four contestants this year (stats through Feb. 4).
Giannis Antetokounmpo — 180 dunks, 68 blocks
We don’t need to do much to establish Giannis’ “dunking on dudes” credentials. Only Rudy Gobert has more dunks so far this year and Giannis’ length and strength mean he’s able to go over and through pretty much anyone.
Giannis is the least accomplished shot-blocker of this group but that’s heavily influenced by playing next to Brook Lopez, whose more limited skillset necessitates him playing as the defensive backstop whenever possible.
When called upon, Giannis has certainly shown the ability to swallow an opposing dunker.
Anthony Davis — 116 dunks, 105 blocks
Davis has a similar build and aesthetic to Giannis — long limbs and plenty of glide. Like Giannis’, he’s also deceptively strong. If he’s able to get enough runway to reach two-handed dunking radius, it’s pretty much over, no matter who is waiting for him.
At the other end, he’s already gotten some reps erasing Giannis dunk attempts.
Jarrett Allen — 109 dunks, 78 blocks
Allen has garnered far more attention for stopping blocks this season than dunking them but that’s fine, there are now two key components to the dunk contest. His preseason stuff on Blake Griffin is what this dunk contest is all about.
And, in the right circumstances, he can be more than just wingspan on his dunks, really generating leverage and power when he has time to set.
Montrezl Harrell — 122 dunks, 75 blocks
Harrell is a bit of a wild card here, he doesn’t appear to have the same length or gliding athleticism but he certainly has the numbers and his brute strength would be an enormous asset. Don’t believe me? Just ask Andre Drummond…
…or Gorgui Dieng…
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis will almost certainly enter this competition as favorites but, just like the real dunk contest, there is an opportunity here for a relatively unknown young player to establish themselves on a national stage.