How the NBA Can Save the Dunk Contest

The NBA Dunk Competition, a monumental event with a spectacular history of creativity, is playing center stage this coming Friday in the City of Lights. The question, however, is whether it will be able to live up to the hype of the almost distant past or whether it will once again fall short of adding another chapter to the legacy.

Last year, Nate Robinson beat out Andre Iguodala in an awkward finale which made the fans almost as embarrassed as lil' Nate should have been. There were some nice displays of creativity, though, with Robinson eventually finishing off with the double-between-the-legs pass off-the-backboard alley-oop dunk (on his 953rd attempt).

Most thought, though, that Iguodala put on the best display of athleticism by ducking the backboard for an alley-oop reverse, throwing down a bounce pass alley-oop behind-the-back dunk, and putting it between the legs both ways on separate attempts to prove he's more than just one-dimensional.

The problem with the dunk comp these days, however, isn't that the players can't put on an amazing show. The problem is that there are players that could put on an even better show. This year, one could argue, the judges are more capable dunker's than the contestants themselves.

No disrespect to Gerald Green, Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Tyrus Thomas — it's not their fault that the NBA chose such prestigious judges for the big show.

The judges for the event are Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, and Dominique Wilkins.

When will NBA fans ever get to see Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter square off? When will we get to see LeBron James even compete? How about throwing in Ricky Davis, Steve Francis, Kevin Garnett, or Tracy McGrady? It would even be nice to see James White participate for the first time; a man known for his ability to do pretty much any dunk while also taking off from the free-throw line. Okay, I guess it's all right if the NBA saves his show for when he's actually getting playing time in the Association, but fans everywhere can hardly wait to see what he'd have prepared.

The problem with the NBA Dunk Competition isn't that the players can't do enough, it's simply that they aren't going against the best of the best. The stars of the NBA seemingly want nothing to do with the event other than judging or watching it.

It would be completely fine to have this years contestants all participate if they were going up against a few of the elite. If one of these four emerge from this year's battle, then they're okay, but if they took on four more of the best, they could be great.

Gerald Green has been saying that he has something up his sleeve that will shock the unshockable. His teammate Tony Allen professed to ESPN that if it is successful, it will go down as "one of the top 10 in history." Dwight Howard has supposedly kissed the rim a few times in practice, and Nate Robinson is still short and still allowed to take two minutes to make a successful attempt.

Tyrus Thomas, on the other hand, states that he is, according to the Chicago Tribune, "just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day."

Profound.

The winning contestant gets $35,000, while second place receives $22,500. Third- and fourth-place finishers end up with $16,125 apiece.

The event will still, undoubtedly, be an amazing show. We all know that they can dunk with creativity and know that they will, regardless of their motives. Thomas won't want to be booed off of the Vegas center-stage and might even have just been downplaying the event (while in the meantime earning a $10,000 fine by the Bulls for his comments) in order to surprise. All four contestants will come out firing, but the winner will never be proclaimed the best dunker in the NBA, simply because there are too many amazing athletes left off of the entrants list.

The NBA should adopt a six- or eight-player event in which three or four of the competitors are high-flying youngsters and the rest are the big-name players that everybody wants to see. Not only would it add a bang to the event, but it would also continue to allow the NBA to market it's youth movement.

Next year, I want to see Kobe in his 1997 form, Vinsanity upping what he did in 2000, and King James throwing it down with the new kids on the block. Let's see if the young guns can really prove themselves against the fiercest competition.

Let's make this dunk competition all about being the best — of the best.