NBA: 5 thoughts we have leaving the All-Star break
By Ethan Becker
With the 2019 NBA All-Star break just about over, we explore five thoughts we have leaving the week-long festivities
The NBA All-Star break is arguably the best All-Star event in all of professional sports. Not only does the All-Star game, the Rookie Showcase, the Skills Challenge, and the Dunk Contest give us some of the best highlights of the year, but it also works as a marker in the NBA to look forward into the future and talk about the last half of the season, and the upcoming postseason.
With that however, there are always more than a few questions that we’re left with after the weekend wraps up, and this year is no different. Here are the five biggest.
When will the dunk contest change?
Ever since Zach LaVine‘s win over Aaron Gordon in 2016, people have been scratching their heads as to why the former headline NBA event has been, well, just kind of average. In fact, the 2015 and 2016 dunk contest were exceptions to the rule, and the rule for the last decade seems to be that the Dunk Contest is just ok.
For proof, try to name the winners of the contest for the last 10 years? Can you name them all? Check below if you got it:
- 2009. Nate Robinson
- 2010. Nate Robinson
- 2011. Blake Griffin
- 2012. Jeremy Evans
- 2013. Terence Ross
- 2014. John Wall
- 2015. Zach LaVine
- 2016. Zach LaVine
- 2017. Glenn Robinson III
- 2018. Donovan Mitchell
- 2019. Hamidou Diallo
Now, this doesn’t mean that the Dunk Contest sucks, or is never entertaining, but compare any of those contests to the 2000 Contest, or the 1990, or the 1988 contests. It’s then that you’ll probably realize the kind of changes the NBA needs to make.