During the NBA All-Star Weekend if you happen to find that you could use a little entertainment other than what’s going on in the actual game with the East playing the West then you are in luck as the NBA Slam Dunk Competition is part of the entirety of the NBA All-Star Weekend each and every year.
The wonderful and highly exciting Slam Dunk Contest is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) competition held during the NBA All-Star Weekend.
The Slam Contest was started by the American Basketball Association (ABA) at its All-Star Game in 1976 in Denver, the same year the slam dunk was legalized in the NCAA.
As a result of the ABA-NBA corporate merger later that year there would not be another slam dunk contest at the professional-level until the year of 1984. The current NBA Slam Dunk Contest utilizes fan voting, via text-messaging, to determine the overall winner of the final round.
Larry Nance of the Phoenix Suns
The first NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner was Larry Nance of the Phoenix Suns. But that is not the player that most individuals remember and it is not the number one slammer that most fans recall when they think of the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk competition.
That title and moniker is held by another; Dr. J. of the Philadelphia 76ers. This was where he took off from the top of the key and literally flew to the basket with that thunderous phenomenal dunk! This was the very first All-Star Slam Dunk and it occurred during the ABA’s 1976 All-Star Game.
Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson
There has only been one player who has won the event three times and that is the current NBA All-Star Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson with the Boston Celtics. Robinson won all three of his titles while playing with the New York Knickerbockers and this is one of the few highlights for this very marketable and highly-visible NBA franchise in the past 10 years.
The National Basketball Association brought the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest back in 1984 after it was originally held within the ABA. Denver, Colorado was the site of the first official NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest that was won by Nance and the next year Dominic Wilkins would win a hotly-contested match with his teammate the high-flying Spud Webb.
Spud Webb
Atlanta’s Spud Webb is the shortest player in NBA Slam Dunk history to win the contest standing at a towering 5’7”. Spud Webb would go on to win the contest one more time until Michael Jordan entered the NBA Slam Dunk arena contest and won the 1987 and 88 contests.
Please see below a year by year slam dunk champion results listing and see if your favorite player is on there. Chances are that you follow at least one of these grand slam dunk champions and possibly more as these are some the most exciting players in the NBA in the modern era.
All-Star: Slam Dunk Year-by-Year Results