The NBA Slam Dunk Contest has been in decline for a good while now, with most of the best players in the league refusing to compete in the dunking exhibition. It certainly feels as though the NBA has had to beg some players to go out and participate in the competition, and this year, there were plenty of lowlights — from Jaxson Hayes' regular tomahawk dunk, to Jase Richardson's hard fall, to San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant running out of time, to dunk contest champion Keshad Johnson's eccentric dance moves.
But it looks as though a rising star in the form of Spurs rookie Dylan Harper could at least infuse a bit of name recognition into the dunk contest. In an appearance on the Cousins podcast with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, Harper, who showed up along with his father and three-time NBA champion Ron and his brother, current Boston Celtics guard Ron Harper Jr., may just have been goaded into joining the 2027 NBA Slam Dunk Contest in Phoenix.
“I could do every dunk you did in that contest,” Dylan told his father, referring to Ron's appearances in the 1987 and 1989 dunk contests. “[But] I’m not doing no dunk contest.”
“You don’t think you’re good enough?” McGrady asked to provoke a response.
“No, I think I don’t got that many tricks,” the Spurs guard replied. “[But] we could see in like a year. We could see next year.”
Can Spurs guard Dylan Harper at least perform better than his father did?
In 1987, Ron Harper, who was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers, did a self-lob to a reverse jam and a tap on the front rim before a reverse dunk for his two jams on the night. He finished fifth in the contest.
Two years later, he brought out a one-handed, 360 statue of liberty jam (which he made on the second attempt) and followed that up with a self-lob, a high bounce off the ground, which he punctuated with an emphatic one-handed tomahawk.
The Spurs guard doesn't have too high of a bar to clear considering the dunks his father did.
