2011 NBA: Is the Abundance of Props Ruining the Slam Dunk Contest?

DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors thinks the dunk contest is being ruined by the overuse of props, such as extra hoops, stuffed animals and even cars. He is absolutely right. Blake Griffin won the 2011 Slam Dunk Contest during the NBA All-Star festivities in Los Angeles this past weekend by jumping over a car, but is that the kind of dunk worthy of a slam dunk title?

“I'm a dunker. Dunk contests, you go out there and dunk. I'm not into all the props and everything,” said DeRozan when asked about the dunk contest Tuesday, according to an AP report via ESPN.com.

DeRozan added in the same story, “I try to come out with a creative dunk and do it and go from there. My fans liked it and you can see the reaction from a lot of people afterward. If there's a dunk contest next year I'll do it. But not no prop dunk contest." DeRozan makes a fabulous point. Would Dr. J, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan use props in a dunk contest? Probably not. Those guys took creativity to a new level, pushing what we thought was humanly possible during a dunk contest. When does the use of props go too far? We saw the answer during this year’s dunk contest, when multiple dunks were done using a prop not found in a regular game.

The dunk contest should be about who can successfully execute a creative, exciting and difficult dunk, not who can execute an average dunk over a car. JaVale McGee dunked multiple basketballs for one of his dunks, which made me want to immediately turn the TV off. His intention of being creative was really a showing of how lame of a dunker he really is in that he needed several balls to create an exciting dunk. It’s clear that DeRozan was the best pure dunker of the four contestants.Blake Griffin may be more athletic in that he can jump over a car, but he’s not better than DeRozan as a dunker. If I want to see people dunk over a car (and by that I mean over the top of the car, and not the hood of a Kia like Griffin), then I’ll watch an And1 mix-tape video or go on YouTube. The amount of props used in the Slam Dunk Contest has made the event pathetic. When we reward people using props more than people who use their body and the ball, we have done a huge disservice to the game of basketball.