NBA announces participants for Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge

The NBA announced its 2021 participants for the Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge at All-Star Weekend.

This year’s NBA All-Star Weekend will be a little bit different, with every single event taking place on Sunday, but there were still a number of participants to announce for each event leading up to the break.

Tuesday night on TNT, the contestants for the 2021 Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge for All-Star Sunday were announced.

For the Slam Dunk Contest, it’ll be three younger, relatively unknown players in Anfernee Simons of the Portland Trail Blazers, rookie Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks and Cassius Stanley of the Indiana Pacers. All three have plenty of bounce, however, so hopefully they’ll be able to make up for the lack of star power.

In the 3-Point Contest, it appears the league is trying to limit the number of extra players joining the All-Star festivities in Atlanta, since all six competitors were already selected as All-Stars. The field is loaded, with Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, Zach LaVine of the Utah Jazz and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Only Curry and Booker have won this contest before.

Finally, in the Skills Challenge, it’ll be Julius Randle of the New York Knicks, Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers, Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns and Robert Covington of the Portland Trail Blazers. Covington is the only competitor (outside of the Slam Dunk Contest) who was not selected as an All-Star this year.

It’ll be interesting to see which of these participants takes home the prize in each category, especially with the events being condensed into one day this year. Hopefully the incredible dunks, hot 3-point shooting and flashy handles will still be on display in a (fingers crossed!) completely COVID-free event.