The Best Dunk Contest Fails

Let’s celebrate: NBA All-Star weekend tips off tonight in Salt Lake City.

This time of year always reminds me of when I went to NBA Jam Session during the 2011 All-Star Game. It was a week-long event with all kinds of fun activities for fans.

You could try to navigate the skills challenge, dribbling around cardboard defenders, trying to bounce a pass through a circle, or the most difficult move of all: making an uncontested layup.

You could call a play with a local announcer, acting like you were handling a broadcast on live television.

And perhaps the best part, you could dunk on hoops that ranged in height from five to ten feet.

My pal Felipe and I spent far too much time in this area, trying to throw alley-oops and trick passes to each other.

We pulled off a couple of impressive slams, though we probably had about a 15% success rate at best. And this was on a hoop that was only 8 feet tall.

That experience taught me a lesson I already knew: dunking a basketball is hard.

It’s probably even harder on a 10-foot-rim with upwards of a million people watching you do it.

Because we’re all about building from our mistakes, let’s celebrate some of the most spectacular failures in dunk contest history.

Chris Andersen, 2004

Chris “Birdman” Andersen became well-known in NBA circles for his rebounding and block prowess, as well as his colorful tattoos and funky hair.

In 2004, he was also the guy who missed a ton of dunks.

Andersen put up a wild 15 attempts — 32 if you count a poor throw but not actually trying to dunk an attempt, too.

No, he did not make it to the next round. But he did make Kenny Smith say, “there it is” several times. So…that’s something.

Darrell Armstrong, 1996

The Dunk Contest has played around with its format over the years. Sometimes there’s a time limit, sometimes you only get a certain amount of tries, sometimes there’s a wheel involved (more on that below).

But the one thing that’s remained consistent is the “dunk” part of the contest. You have to dunk the ball through the basket.

Darrell Armstrong participated during the 1996 Dunk Contest and unfortunately found himself running short on time for one last dunk.

As he gathered the ball, he fumbled just the littlest bit, so his final dunk is…well, not a dunk at all.

Baron Davis, 2001

Baron Davis is a delightfully entertaining guy.

I was fortunate enough to interview him on my podcast, and he was charming, polite, and a good storyteller.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have been those things if I asked him about this dunk. But at least he’s a good sport about it.

There are at least four great soundbites in this short clip, so on top of the very funny visual, you get some aural enjoyment, too.

I also like this angle because of the reaction of Davis’s fellow players.

The Entire 2002 Dunk Contest

The 2000 dunk contest is widely regarded as among the best contests in NBA history. Yet just two years later, the league was struggling with slams.

So, the NBA created a gimmick: a slam dunk wheel.

In practice, it seemed like a good idea. Participants would spin the wheel and have to do the type of dunk that came up. Who doesn’t love a good wheel spin?

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Steve Francis spun the wheel and got a 1980s dunk, which turned out to be Terence Stansbury’s “Statue of Liberty” slam.

Before he went out to dunk, Francis said he can’t palm a basketball, which is kind of a requirement to pull off a jam like this.

And things only got worse from there. This is the only season the league has used a wheel during the Dunk Contest.