Obi Toppin and Juan Toscano-Anderson clashed in the final round of the Slam Dunk Contest during the All-Star Weekend with Toppin taking the honors. Toscano-Anderson missed all his attempts as he tried to emulate what Jason Richardson did in one of the All-Star Dunk Contests in the 00s. Jalen Green and Cole Anthony had been eliminated in the first round but overall, the dunk contest didn’t receive much hype either from the fans or from the judges. Shaquille O’Neal showed no enthusiasm throughout the contest while the commentators also felt that the dunk contest had little to no substance.
The players did try to pull some tricks off the bag but it seems like Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine had set a high standard during the 2016 contest. For me, the problem is that the pressure to come up with something new is so high that the players end up not even throwing it down hard and just look to pull off initial tricks.
