On Feb. 19, the 2022 NBA dunk contest took place in Cleveland, Ohio as part of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend. The event featured Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks, Cole Anthony of the Orlando Magic, Jalen Green of the Houston Rockets and Juan Toscano-Anderson of the Golden State Warriors. 

This was by far the worst dunk contest in recent history. At the end, Dwayne Wade turned a nine upside down to a six and said, “this dunk contest was a solid six.”

One reason the dunk contest was terrible is because it seemed like everyone forgot how to dunk a basketball. People even said that the 360 degree, two handed dunk that Ja Morant did in the All-Star game was better than the entire dunk contest. 

Green became the contest’s favorite contestant, and he was not even in the finals. The first half of the contest was decent, at best, but the dunks performed still lacked the foundational luster. The contest was so boring that they actually muted the crowd and the other players watching as they were not hyped like they usually are during the dunk contest.  The crowd was dry and that played a part as well.

 The only contestants who could have made a perfect score of 50 were Anthony in the first half and Toscano-Anderson in the finals. Anthony tried to go for an off the bounce tornado one-handed dunk, which sounds awesome on paper but a lot harder to do than it looks. Toscano-Anderson (A.K.A. “the Stephen Curry of Mexico”) tried an off the bounce between the legs clutch, two handed dunk from the baseline. These dunks alone could have saved this dunk contest if they made it.

In the finals it was Toppin vs. Toscano-Anderson. Toscano-Anderson went for Vince Carter’s signature arm in the rim dunk, but only got his wrist in and received a score of 36 points. Toppin went for a two-handed off the backboard, between the legs dunk starting from the free throw line which got him a 46. Toscano-Anderson then went for the failed 50 dunk that resulted in a score of 30. Toppin did the same dunk, with one hand, and got the same score.

In the future, we need better dunkers like Ja Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin or even Jonathan Kuminga in future dunk contests, or else people will just stop caring about the contest all together.