Friday, January 21, 2011

The 50 Best Dunks in NBA Slam Dunk Contest History


Although it was daunting to even begin undertaking such an endeavour, I knew this would be a fun list to put together.  I have a feeling that Sneep will be excited to see it as well.  Danica?  Not so much…

Ideally this will all culminate with the reveal of my Number 1 choice on the Friday right before the 2011 Dunk Contest this February 19th.  By revealing 10 Dunks per week, that math should just about work out perfectly.  So here's hoping.

But, before we dive in, a few points of interest:

1.  To compile this list, I watched all 25 Dunk Competitions from 1984 to 2010 (if my math seems off, that's because they didn't have a Dunk Contest in 1998 or 1999).  I gave all 593 dunks my own score out of 50.  I then took the 75 highest scores and compared each of them to one another to come up with this final list.  If it sounds like a lot of work, that's because it was.  But it's a small price to pay for my devoted blog readers.

2.  I didn't include the original ABA Dunk Contest in this list, as it's not technically an NBA Contest.  Doc had a couple nice dunks as did David Thompson, but none of them would have cracked the Top 50 anyways (although Doc's Foul Line Dunk would have been close), so I guess it's really a moot point.  I only mention it because there have been some great NCAA, City Slam and Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown contests over the years as well, with dunks that easily would have made the Top 50 (or even Top 10) but you shouldn't get your hopes up for any of them appearing on this list.  That's more work than even I was willing to do.

3.  Although I was able to find every Dunk Contest, a few of the mid-80's ones could only be found as edited down NBA TV broadcasts.  It was easy to figure out which dunks I missed, and based on the other dunks in the same contests by the same people, I'm pretty confident that nothing was cut out that could have possibly cracked this Top 50.  But, it is worth noting, as it technically makes this list slightly flawed.  Especially if you're a huge Terry Tyler fan.

Now, without further adieu...
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3 comments:

  1. I'm a little shocked at the work this list would have took...imagine if the Short Way 'Cross DVD could get this much attention?

    I like the attention to detail, the dates, scores, competitor heights. Knowing how much work it would be to digitize all the footage, (from VHS I'm sure) edit and post. This is the quality we readers have come to expect from the blog of boring.

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  2. Sorry, Sneep, but the pre-sale numbers came in for the Short Way DVD and they just weren't high enough to suggest that the production cost would be recouped. It's a business after all. You understand.

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  3. Hi Travis! So glad I found your blog. I am trying to find all the Dunk Competitions (ABA or NBA), and am having NO luck. Could you PLEASE let me know how you found the footage? I'd be incredibly appreciative! I can be reached at r.rampleman@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you, RR

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