Despite Changes, Dunk Contest Still Leaves Viewers Cold

When the NBA released the changes to the Dunk Contest, fans (including myself) were optimistic. But after the contest, plenty of angry viewers took to social media websites to vent their frustrations.

So, what happened ?

Well first, let's look at the dunkers. 2014 was the first dunk contest that had three All-Stars in it since 1988. Okay, they weren't quite Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Clyde Drexler, but it makes a change from unknown players, and "up and coming" prospects. The only player I'd have a bit of a problem with would be Damian Lillard, but he proved me wrong with his battle round dunk (more on that later). 

The format was changed this year, after most people felt that the Dunk Contest should be declared "dead" after last year's disappointment. For the first time ever, there would be a team round, where the 3 dunkers from each conference had 90 seconds to throw as many dunks down, as they could. I had high hopes for this round. I thought it would be a non-stop barrage of amazing dunks, and the energy would be sky-high.

An All-Star squad, but not an All-Star competition. Nick Cannon failed to keep the crowd involved

However, the audience seemed uninterested. The atmosphere was flat. This was probably because of two things.

1) There were too many missed dunks. But this can be forgiven because we're all human.
2) The dunks weren't very good. There were a couple of highlights (the 3 man alley oop from the East wasn't bad) but overall there wasn't anything that could go down as a "great".

Never mind, surely the battle round would save the day. This was the best dunkers in the league, getting head to head, mano a mano. Again, there were high hopes, but it let spectators down.

Terrence Ross' dunk was mediocre, Harrison Barnes' was boring, and I expected more from Paul George after seeing what he could do in-game. Admittedly, Ben McLemore over Shaq was impressed, but the whole build up was very cheesy. John Wall's double pump reverse over G-Man was the highlight of the night, and he deserved the "Dunker of the Night" accolade.

To be honest, the battle round also fell flat, as I don't think one dunk each was enough to really allow us a chance to see what these guys are capable of. Maybe if it were a best of 3 format for each "battle" then fans would have got more into it.

Although I admire Adam Silver and the NBA for trying to change the format (especially so soon into Silver's leadership), they need to go back to the drawing board if they want to keep the fans involved in years to come.

Even John Wall's impressive dunk wasn't enough to save the Dunk Contest from being considered one of the poorest in recent year