Well, let's be honest. The NBA Dunk Contest was a major disappointment yet again. NBA fans did not enjoy watching it, and they are even calling for the event to be done with for good. We're never going to see a Zach LaVine-Aaron Gordon battle ever again, and we have a guy that isn't even in the NBA winning two contests in a row. And no disrespect to Mac McClung, even if the best dunkers in the NBA were in the competition, he would probably still hold his own, but everyone knows at this point that there needs to be a change.
NBA fans are calling for the Dunk Contest to be done with, but no one knows what that change would look like. All-Star weekend is supposed to be something that is fun for both the players and the fans of the NBA. There are a lot of good things about it, but the Dunk Contest doesn't seem to be one of them anymore.
It's upsetting to see, really, because the Dunk Contest used to be one of the best parts of NBA All-Star weekend. Now, we have the fans booing the highest paid player in the league after dunking over a 5'3″ person that is sitting down. The Dunk Contest isn't what it once was, and it's time for change.
If the NBA is going to get rid of the Dunk Contest, they will obviously need to replace it with something else. Here are three things that the league should consider doing that fans would likely enjoy more than the Dunk Contest.
1 v. 1s
Putting some of the best players in the NBA up against each other in a 1 v. 1 style game would be pretty cool to see. Obviously, a 1 v. 1 doesn't do a good job of showing who the better player really is as there are certain play styles that are more fit for that type of competition, but it would still be cool to see the stars go up against each other in that kind of setting. There is certainly some potential there.
Father vs. son game
We are expecting a father and son duo in the NBA soon as Bronny James is expected to make it to the league. This would be tough to do consistently as there aren't a ton of duos like them, but if the NBA has the chance to put Bronny and LeBron up against each other during All-Star weekend, that would be a pretty cool thing to do. A lot of fans would tune in to watch that, and it would be a lot more entertaining than the Dunk Contest.
4-point contest
To make the 3-point contest even better, let's push things back again. The NBA did a good job of shaking things up this season with the Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu contest. They should keep adding unique things like that to make the fans more interested. Why not make things a little bit more fun and push the line back and do a 4-point contest? Let's see the best players in the league show off their range. A lot of people would want to see Steph Curry do something like that.
Who knows what the NBA will do to fix the current state of the Dunk Contest, but a lot of people would probably rather see the league experiment with new things like this instead of continuing to do the Dunk Contest.