Whether it was the announcers constantly saying "seen it" or Miami Heat's Keshad Johnson doing more dancing than giving the fans something exciting to watch, this should be the final straw that breaks the camel's back for commissioner Adam Silver to initiate change to the once thrilling competition.
This was your 2026 NBA Dunk Contest winning dunk, ladies and gentlemen - a running windmill, not even from the free throw line. Something we all see almost every single game throughout the season.
Let the golf claps begin.
The NBA Dunk Contest was a competition where fans could watch the most athletic guys from the league perform emphatic dunks that they simply couldn't do in regular games. Vince Carter's iconic elbow dunks. Aaron Gordon's under-the-legs. Five-foot-nine Nate Robinson was doing things that guys a foot taller than him couldn't even do.
It used to be something that fans around the world would want to sit down and watch. Now? It's becoming irrelevant as the NFL Pro Bowl.
"I didn't even know it was on." "Wait, it already happened?" "Who was even in it?" "I don't even know who two of those guys are." These are all messages and responses I received today after trying to gauge their reactions - something that used to have everyone tuned in, sending highlights in the group chats as soon as they happened.
So, here's what a great dunk contest is like for anyone who needs a refresher.
The crazy reactions from celebrities and fans on the sidelines were completely nonexistent this year - as it should've been. I re-watched Olympic curling highlights just to feel something even the slightest bit more exciting than that snooze fest.
There's a reason official NBA accounts on social media didn't post the dunk of Jaxson Hayes when he quite literally just ran to the basket and did a basic one-hand dunk that little kids do on their mini-hoops on a day after coming home from school when they walk in the door.
This 2026 dunk contest was the furthest thing from a joke, because those are funny. This competition was so trash that it reminded me I had to take out my own before the night ended.
Tributes to Dunk Contest greats are one thing, but doing their dunks with no enthusiasm or power that they brought just makes them nothing more than dunks some random guy at a gym does because he can't shoot the ball.
Robinson dunking over the seven-foot Dwight Howard was impressive. That was what got fans excited. When a six-foot-six Johnson dunks over a six-foot-one E-40, it doesn't hit the same. But even more so, we've seen countless and countless times.
Want to know why people liked watching Matt McClung? He brought a flare. Creativity. Something the competition was desperately clinging to so bad that the league made sure he got an NBA contract just so he could participate in the competition before sending him back down to the G League after the weekend was over.
This is where the state of the once great competition is at - a perfect score on a dunk between the legs. No 360. Not even a reverse. Nothing to spice it up anymore. No moving the rim to a higher height. No props.
He couldn't even blindfold himself with his own headband.
I remembered when 50s (perfect score) were given out to dunks that had the entire arena shaking so much that it felt like it would collapse. These days, I would've preferred to go to the concessions to pay for an overpriced slice of pizza before finding my way out of the arena.
This is simply a call to Adam Silver to bring back something that had even non-NBA fans watching. It made little kids recreate the dunks on their own hoops growing up. It had adults trying to do it in their local gyms.
NBA players used to want to be part of the competition. It was an honour to be among so many talented players trying to win the best All-Star Weekend title. There was a reason why it was the last event before the All-Star Game the following day.
Call it whatever you will nowadays, since it's no longer what it was, but the NBA Dunk Contest and the NFL Pro Bowl are the biggest jokes in American sports.