50 Greatest NBA Dunk Contest Participants

The NBA Lockout has already done a number on the schedule, as multiple weeks of the season have already been canceled and we are a week into what would be the 2011 NBA season.

At this point, it looks more like the system is going to end up being blown up than it looks like it will get resolved before the end of this year.

The owners are taking a hardline approach against the players and the players look like they are going to be standing their ground. 

With all this going on, I think it's pretty much a given that the All-Star Weekend is not only in jeopardy, but unlikely to happen at all with an abbreviated, scrunched-together schedule the best we can hope for.

So, in honor of the likely loss of the most exciting weekend in professional basketball, and in the process the dunk contest, I've decided to take a trip down memory lane and take a gander at the past dunk contests.

Along the way I've picked out the 50 most exciting, entertaining and altogether enjoyable participants in dunk contest history.

50. Darrell Griffith

Darrell Griffith can be seen first 20 seconds into this clip which is a compilation of the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest with a slick up-and-under.

In fact, Griffith could have ended up winning this contest if he wasn't victimized by the ridiculous "byes" that were handed out in the second and third years of the contest to the previous year's winners.  He totaled 126 points in the first round, just four behind Michael Jordan.  He didn't advance because Julius Erving and Larry Nance automatically were placed in the second round because they were the top two finishers the previous year.

49. Clarence Weatherspoon

Clarence Weatherspoon opened up the first round of his one and only dunk contest with a ferocious windmill that Dominique Wilkins would have been proud of (which starts at 53 seconds.

He went on to place second in the contest, losing to Harold Miner.  For some reason he never competed in the competition again, despite being absolutely electrifying in this one.

48. Gerald Wilkins

In one of the strangest scores that I've seen in a dunk contest, Gerald Wilkins' second dunk in the 1986 competition gets him a perfect 50.  He takes off from about two feet inside the free throw line, which was impressive, and leaps a chair.  I'm pretty sure the dunk would look no different without the chair, but it would give him probably a 45.

Wilkins came back for the '87 contest after making it to the second round in '86, but he bottomed out and came in dead last.  Still, he was an exciting competitor in 1986.

47. Darvin Ham

Darvin Ham came in dead last in his one-and-only dunk contest, but I think he got robbed.

You be the judge, his dunk comes 31 seconds into the clip when he drops the ball down between his legs, does a 180 and stretches to throw it down behind himself.

46. Tim Perry

Tim Perry was basically the random guy to throw into a dunk contest back in the 90s, and he was entertaining enough to get into three of them.

However, sometimes he was remembered for being a bad dunker, as seen in the clip here where he basically just goes up and throws down a non-emphatic, basic windmill.

45. Ricky Davis

Another guy remembered for doing a bit of an embarrassing dunk, Ricky Davis at least redeemed himself a bit with some very impressive dunks.

This clip shows Davis going along the baseline and threading the ball between his legs to slam it home behind his head.

44. Rex Chapman

A part of the 1990 and 1991 dunk contest, Rex Chapman had a much better showing in 1991 when he came in third, missing going to the final round by just under two points.

One of his best dunks comes at 25 seconds in as he catches an alley-oop and slams it home as his body is going in the opposite direction.

43. Michael Finley

Michael Finley was always a pretty entertaining player in his days in the NBA, and this attempted dunk is easily one of my favorite non-dunks in dunk contest history.

Here, Finley does a terrible excuse for a cartwheel, gathers himself, catches the alley-oop and completely biffs on the dunk.

42. Baron Davis

Baron Davis was in one dunk contest, showing off a third place finish back in 2001, and he certainly put on a show.

He starts off this highlight clip as he catches a pass from himself off the floor and gets a ridiculous amount of air for a guy his size.  It's amazing what a guy can do when he's not 20 pounds overweight.

41. DeShawn Stevenson

Not only did DeShawn Stevenson show off some nice dunks in 2001 when he finished second, but he also showed off s few dance moves.

Stevenson puts in an alley-oop off the backboard from Byron Russell, slams it home with a ferocious windmill and does a nice little jig on the landing at 44 seconds into this clip.

40. Serge Ibaka

The 2011 dunk contest showcased a wide variety of talent as far as dunkers go, some players using props and others just going with old-fashioned dunking skills.

Serge Ibaka went with just pure athleticism with his dunk from the free-throw line (legitimately), gliding to the hoop with amazing grace for a guy his size.

39. Ron Harper

Ron Harper got lost in the fray of the 1987 dunk contest even though he put up 83 points in the first round, but four guys to advance each scored more than 90 points.

In this clip from the 1989 dunk contest, Harper is the second dunker in the video as he catches a pass from himself off the floor and slams the ball home as his momentum is carrying him in the opposite direction.

38. Jerome Kersey

Jerome Kersey had the unfortunate task of going up against Michael Jordan in the final round of the 1988 contest, and he did hold his own, even though he couldn't dethrone him.

Kersey's signature dunk comes in at 2:45 as he throws down a powerful windmill to try to counter Michael Jordan's perfect 50 on his final dunk.

37. Larry Johnson

Grandmama never fails to disappoint when it comes to entertaining the fans, and the 1992 contest was no different than anything else.

Johnson finished second in 1992 behind Cedric Ceballos, but he did all he could with this powerful, rim-rattling 360 slam.

36. Chris Andersen

I know it took Chris Andersen something like 20 attempts when he tried a dunk in the 2005 dunk contest, but he never failed to entertain the crowd, and really, that's what these contests are all about.

Just take a look at this Chris Andersen compilation and tell me that this man wasn't one of the best parts of the mid-2000s dunk contests.

35. Amar'e Stoudemire

Sure, the most memorable thing about Amar'e Stoudemire in the dunk contest was this alley-oop coming courtesy of Steve Nash's dome, but he was good for some other entertaining moments as well.

He came in third in the 2003 dunk contest and second in the 2005 contest, getting obliterated by Josh Smith's perfect 100 in the final round.

34. JaVale McGee

JaVale McGee showed off a perfect combination of creativity and athletic ability in the dunk contest last season, and for that I had to include him on this list.

His double-hoop dunk from the first round that earned him a trip to the final round is a perfect example of his ability to entertain and show off his ability.

33. Gerald Wallace

Gerald Wallace was appeared in two dunk contests, the one in 2002 and the one in 2010, a very impressive thing to do, showing off athleticism nine years apart.

Some say he was robbed worse in 2002 in the dunk contest than the Kings were in the playoffs against the Lakers, you be the judge.

32. Jerry Stackhouse

Jerry Stackhouse's performances in the NBA All-Star weekend have been mostly forgotten, mostly because he was in the 1996 contest when the dunk contest was at a low, and in 2000, when it was at a peak and he got buried in the bottom.

Still, Stackhouse showed off the athleticism that he had when he was a younger fellow, putting on a show with the flashy Detroit horse galloping across the front of his jersey.

31. Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen was only a part of one dunk contest, and he was never anything near what Michael Jordan was, but he was still an impressive part of the 1990 dunk contest.

The '90 contest was an extremely competitive one, as Scottie put up a score of 92.2 and still didn't make it out of the first round, even with this free-throw line dunk.  I think the problem was that he made it look too easy.

30. Andre Iguodala

Andre Iguodala put up one of the most impressive dunks that I have ever seen in the 2006 contest when he got a pass off the backboard from Allen Iverson.

The only thing is, Iverson threw the ball off the back of the backboard and Iguodala caught the ball while out of bounds, nearly hit his head on the backboard and put it in up over his head.

It's too bad he ended up losing in a sudden death to Nate Robinson, otherwise he would have had one of the best performances since the early part of the decade when Vince Carter was making jaws hit the floor.

29. J.R. Smith

J.R. Smith took part in both the 2005 and 2009 dunk contests, coming in third both times, but being kept out of the final round by two performers that were just on the top of their game.

In this particular dunk, the commentators doubted him the whole time, but Smith went up and passed the ball from his left hand to his right hand behind his back.  It's the first time I ever saw anyone do it, and I haven't seen anybody do it since.

28. Brent Barry

At a low point in dunk contest history, Brent Barry won the dunk contest over Michael Finley and Greg Minor, and even though it wasn't a memorable dunk contest, he still won the thing, so I've got to give him some credit.

The first dunk that he did was a dunk from the free throw line, which may have been a first in white people history.

27. Fred Jones

A lot of people forget that Fred Jones was both in the league and won a dunk contest in the past decade, but he put on quite a show.

Jones dethroned Jason Richardson in a final round showdown with a perfect 50 on his first dunk of the round as he bounced the ball off the floor to himself, stretched out as far as a human can possibly stretch, grabbed the ball and slammed it home, all while his momentum took him hurtling away from the rim. 

26. Tracy McGrady

It's a shame that Tracy McGrady only participated in one dunk contest, otherwise I could have put him higher and we would have had even better dunk contests in the early 2000s, but his showcase in the 2000 contest was just short of amazing.

McGrady came in third in the competition, but in the opening round he put up three stupendous dunks, including the one in this video that earned him a perfect 50.

He just didn't have it in him to come out and dominate in the next round, so he finished behind Vince Carter and Steve Francis.

25. Kobe Bryant

While still in the rut that was the late-90s dunk contests, Kobe Bryant won the 1997 contest with very little fanfare, but he still won the thing and put on a show.

Bryant beat Chris Carr (who?) and Michael Finley in the final round to take home the trophy, winning the thing with a between-the-legs throw down that got him a 49.

24. Blake Griffin

Now, I've heard plenty of complaints that Blake Griffin was given the victory more than he earned it, which I'm inclined to agree with, but it's without a doubt that he beat JaVale McGee in the finals.  Sure, DeMar DeRozan probably should have been there instead of him, but we can't rewrite history.

The dunk over the Kia was all well and good, but it wasn't his most impressive dunk of the night.  For my money that goes to the Vince Carter Special he pulled off, throwing the ball down emphatically and hanging from the crook of his elbow for a good three or four seconds.

23. Terence Stansbury

Terence Stansbury was a focal point of the dunk contest from 1985 until 1987, but he was never able to win the thing.  He came in third twice and second once, but he fell victim to the Michael Jordan-Dominique Wilkins-Spud Webb triumvirate that reigned supreme for those years.

Still, there is at least one takeaway for Stansbury in those years, and that's his now iconic 360 from the bottom of the circle that landed him a perfect score.  It's really a thing of beauty.

22. DeMar DeRozan

DeMar DeRozan supporters will argue until they are blue in the face that he's been robbed in back-to-back years, once because of the Nate Robinson hype machine and once because of the Blake Griffin hype machine, and you know what, I think they're right.

Hopefully he comes back and does it again, because he has really been the most exciting player in terms of pure dunking ability.  If there were no props allowed, we would be talking about a back-to-back champion, no question.

If he comes back and doesn't win it next year I'll personally deliver to him the Terence Stansbury Lifetime Achievement Award.

21. Desmond Mason

Up until a few days ago I had completely forgotten that Desmond Mason won the 2001 dunk contest, which is probably because there was no way that that contest could have lived up to the 2000 contest.

Still, he won the whole shebang in 2001, came in third in 2002 and finished second in 2003, an impressive resume for a man who also has a perfect dunk under his belt, coming in the 2003 finals in which he lost by two points to Jason Richardson.

20. Gerald Green

To me, Gerald Green is the most underrated dunk contest participant of the last decade (DeRozan has too many die-hards to be underrated).

He won the contest in 2007, making him the only player to beat Nate Robinson in a dunk contest and put together my all-time favorite dunk involving a prop.  Green had a cupcake put on the back of the rim, stuck a candle in it and in between catching an alley-oop to himself and dunking the ball, he calmly turns his head and blows out the candle.

19. Cedric Ceballos

Cedric Ceballos was a part of the weird transitional era of the dunk contest where people were trying to figure out what to do after Michael Jordan made it what it was (and as weird as it sounds, Harold Miner probably saved it in 1994), but still, I like what he did.

He may have been able to see through the blindfold, he may not have, but I like the creativity and I like the fact that the judges gave him love for it.

19. Dee Brown

Dee Brown did a variation of the Cedric Ceballos dunk the year before, and it was clearly a better dunk, but for it he didn't get a perfect score.

Brown's now-iconic dunk saw him take off from a pretty good distance, bury his eyes into the crook of his elbow, extend and throw down a thunderous dunk.

17. Larry Nance

The first big man (in the NBA) to get into the dunk contest also happened to be the first winner of the NBA's version of the Vertical Classic.

The way Larry Nance just effortlessly glides through the air as his limbs flail about is oddly hypnotizing, and it's part of the reason why his dunks, which fully emphasize his ability to control his upper body, are so impressive.

16. Kenny Walker

Kenny Skywalker, with his ridiculously high fade and the short shorts and long compression shorts just scream 1989, but his dunks can't be bound by any era, even when performed by a man in ridiculous garb.

Walker is able to make the most herky-jerky motions seem impossibly smooth and effortless, and he did some of the strangest things with his legs while in mid-air.  He's truly a sight to be seen.

15. Josh Smith

In 2005, Josh Smith took down three of the best participants of the dunk contest in the 2000s to never win the contest in Amare Stoudemire, J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen (I said it), and he did it by trying to rip down the rim every time he touched it.

My favorite dunk from that year (but not necessarily his best) was when he put on a Dominique Wilkins jersey and paid homage to the old-timer, and threw down a windmill just as emphatically as Wilkins would have done.  For his troubles he got a perfect score, a number he saw three times in four dunks in 2005.

14. Kenny Smith

The current mouth of the dunk contest, with a voice that hits 120 decibels any time somebody so much as does a windmill, Kenny Smith was as close as you can get to winning a dunk contest without actually winning it.

He came in second behind Dominique Wilkins in 1990, losing by just 1.7 points to the Human Highlight Film. 

Smith came back in 1991 and 1993 to try his chances again, but he never placed better than fourth.

13. Shawn Kemp

These next three guys are probably the three best participants to never win the dunk contest, starting with ferocious, frightening Shawn Kemp.

Kemp advanced out of the first round three of the four times he competed, but he always ended up fizzling out as the contest went on.

Kemp's best was probably this effortless double-clutch, soaring rim-rattler from just inside the free-throw line.  He was in the air so long that somewhere in the world three women had children that they would claim were his.

12. Clyde Drexler

Only Dominique Wilkins participated in as many dunk contests as Clyde Drexler, but Wilkins won it twice, Drexler went out there five times and came home empty-handed each time.

In 1984 and '85 he came in second-to-last and dead last, finishing behind the legendary Joshua Treadway in '85.  Then, from '87 to '89 he came in fourth, third and second, losing to Kenny Walker by nearly 100 point in '89 as he completely imploded in the final round.

11. Steve Francis

Stevie Franchise may have a woefully imperfect nickname, but he also has the distinction of being one of the best dunkers of the early 2000s.

Francis was a part of that ridiculous trio to make it to the final round in 2000, alongside Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, and he came in second, but nobody was beating Carter that night.

He tried his hand at the contest again in 2002, but he came in fourth, going down in the first round to Gerald Wallace in the one year that the dunkers went head-to-head.

10. Isaiah Rider

He may have had a bad attitude for most of his career, but nobody can deny that this guy could dunk with the best of the best in the league.

Rider won the contest in 1994 thanks to a near-perfect score with his between-the-legs dunk that made Charles Barkley's jaw hit the ground.

He came in second the following year in a showdown of "Baby Jordans" with Harold Miner taking him down.

9. Dwight Howard

Dwight Howard impressed the world with his powerful, yet smooth and skillful dunks from 2007 to 2009, winning in 2008 with his now iconic Superman Thrunk (he threw it through the hoop, but it's still a dunk).

Howard was taken down a year later by Nate Robinson in one of my least favorite dunk contests that focused too much on the participants involved rather than their actual dunks.

8. Nate Robinson

Speaking of Nate Robinson, I may get a bit of heat for this, but I think the little guy got way too much love.

He won the contest three times, participating in it four times, but the first one he won was in a controversial tie-breaker with Andre Iguodala and the other two were when the fan voting was implemented for the final round.  As with pretty much anything, I don't trust fans to vote for anything, there's too much margin of error.

Still, the little guy won the contest three times, and I can't take that away from him.

7. Harold Miner

The original "Next Michael Jordan" at least followed in Michael Jordan's footsteps when it comes to dunk contests.  In fact, you have to admire the guy's efficiency. Miner was only  in the league for four seasons, yet he won the dunk contest twice.  Jordan would have had to have won the contest eight times to beat that kind of efficiency.

Miner was the one that took the dunk contest into the mid-90s when a lot of the country lost interest, so maybe I shouldn't be giving him so much credit.

6. Spud Webb

The premier and most impressive little man dunker, Spud Webb stands at just 5'6" and it seems like he has a jetpack on when he goes up for a dunk.

You think he's not even going to make it to the bottom of the net, and somehow he keeps going up, seemingly defying gravity the whole time he's in the air.

Webb won the contest in 1986 over teammate Dominique Wilkins with a perfect final round, putting up back-to-back 50s.

Somebody should really check to see if there was flubber on the bottom of his shoes.

5. Jason Richardson

After a lackluster 2001 contest, Jason Richardson picked up the torch where Vince Carter dropped it, winning in 2002 and 2003, finishing second in 2004.

Richardson had the same high-flying ability mixed with extreme body control that Vince Carter had, but it just seemed much less refined, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He was more like Kenny Walker compared to Carter, who was like Michael Jordan or Dominique Wilkins.

Over the course of three dunk contests, Richardson put up five perfect 50s.

4. Dominique Wilkins

The Human Highlight Film was one half of the most epic dunk contest battle ever to go down, and unfortunately for him, people remember him losing to Jordan more than they remember when he beat Jordan.

Still, Dominique Wilkins won the competition in 1985 over Michael Jordan in the final round and in 1990 over Kenny Smith.  He came in third in the inaugural contest in 1984, lost to Spud Webb in 1986 and Michael Jordan in 1988.

An impressive run for an even more impressive dunker.

3. Dr. J

You didn't think I was going to leave out the granddaddy of the dunk contest, did you?

Even though Julius Erving never technically won a dunk contest in the NBA, his victory in the ABA contest in 1976 counts for double because of how groundbreaking it was.

He was the one to popularize the free-throw line dunk, and even more impressive, nine years after winning the contest in 1976 he came in second in the first NBA Dunk Contest behind Larry Nance in 1984 and fourth in 1985. 

2. Michael Jordan

It's rare that Michael Jordan ever take a backseat to anyone in any kind of list, but this is going to have to be an exception.

Still, Jordan won two of the three dunk contests that he participated in, including the most memorable final round in history back in 1988.

He won the contest in 1987, but he beat the likes of Jerome Kersey in the final round, and he wouldn't be able to show off at his peak unless he was able to get a revenge matchup with Dominique Wilkins, who beat him in 1985.

He got that rematch in 1988 and the two of them put up two perfect scores each in the final round, but Jordan's worst dunk of the round (a measly 47) was better than Wilkins' (an horrendous 45).

1. Vince Carter

The dominance that Vince Carter showed off in the one dunk contest that he was ever a part of was enough so he wouldn't ever have to do another one.

There was nothing left for him to prove. Carter took on the best dunkers in the league at the time (Steve Francis and Tracy McGrady in the final round) and made it a no-contest.

With his five dunks in two rounds, Carter scored a 50, 49, 50, 50, and a 48.  Because only the top two scores were taken in the first round, he technically only missed out on two points.

Every dunk that Carter did was memorable. Every. Single. One.

The 360 windmill, the emphatic windmill from behind the backboard, the between-the-legs off the bounce pass from T-Mac, the elbow hang and the dunk from just inside the free-throw line where he got so much air that it looked like he would hit his head on the backboard.

Michael Jordan easily stacks up with Carter when you take into account all three years that Jordan did the competition, but comparing Jordan's '88 win with Carter's '00 victory and I have to give the nod to Carter.

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