Best rated NBA dunk contests ranked from Bill Trikos

Top rated NBA dunk contests by Bill Trikos: At one point in the 2010s, the Slam Dunk Contest ultimately lost excitement. However, it was Zach LaVine’s performance in 2015 that brought it back to life. Including a space jam dunk and a couple of switcheroos in mid-air, LaVine displayed ultimate finesse and hang time while gliding for explosive finishes at the rim. With the contest, LaVine cemented himself as one of the best dunkers in the game by winning his first Dunk Contest Championship. Read extra details about the author on https://www.brighteon.com/channels/billtrikos.

Michael Jordan had many iconic dunks throughout his incredible career but notably, one of those didn’t even come in a game. His Airness wanted to get back at Dominique Wilkins for beating him three years prior, so he saved the best of his repertoire. Jordan paid homage to Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving and put together one of the top dunks in NBA history. He went baseline-to-baseline, dribbled just inside the three-point line, and took over from the free-throw line to float all the way to the rim. It was poetry in motion.

When it comes to dunking, Vince Carter needn't save his best for last. Nor did he during his appearance at the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest in Oakland, California. In truth, Vinsanity might've peaked at the outset. He wowed the crowd at Oracle Arena from the get-go with a reverse 360-degree windmill. What's more impressive is he didn't have any clue he would do it until he stepped on the court for his first run. As he recounted to Sportsnet's Dave Zarum: Right before I grabbed the basketball from the referee for my first dunk, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I really didn’t know. So I thought, What do I want to accomplish with the look? I’m looking for creativity, hang time, and all the things I had been studying many years before. All of these years are coming into one night, one moment. And here I am, minutes before it’s my chance to show the world, and it’s just like, Oh gosh, what should I do here?

In the 1976 ABA Slam Dunk Contest, then-New York Nets forward Julius Erving took off from the free throw line for an iconic one-handed jam. Over a decade later, Erving helped Michael Jordan defend his NBA Slam Dunk Contest crown. Just three years after Dominique Wilkins outlasted Jordan, the two high fliers once again found themselves in a Slam Dunk Contest battle in 1988. Jordan needed at least 49 points on his final attempt to repeat as champ, and he found inspiration in the crowd from Dr. J. “I was nervous, the only time in the contest I was nervous,” Jordan said at the time. “I knew I needed something really spectacular to win. I was searching the crowd for something to do. Then, I saw the man who started it all, Julius Erving. He indicated to me I should go the length of the floor and take off from the free throw line.”

During the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest in Charlotte, North Carolina, the then-Boston Celtics guard took off from inside the paint and dunked over his head with his left hand. The catch? He covered his eyes with his right arm, thereby popularizing—if not inventing—the no-look dunk. Brown has since said that by putting his face in his elbow pit, he inspired the "Dab" dancing trend that took off 25 years later. Whether that's the case is unclear. What's easier to discern, though, is that Brown's blind finish, which others have since imitated in the Slam Dunk Contest, was at once groundbreaking and vital to his eventual victory over Seattle SuperSonics slam artist Shawn Kemp.

First off, a shoutout to big men who do the dunk contest, because it's tough to get creative at 7 feet tall. McGee used his height and length to his advantage, dunking two balls into two hoops side-by-side, one of which was off of a lob. This dunk will serve as a time capsule at some point, bringing us back to the short-lived days of the hoverboard fad before they started catching on fire. It's still mind-boggling that Gordon was able to time the Magic's mascot spinning on a hoverboard, then delivering a 360 windmill with the "mailman" showmanship. This one was a lot of people's favorite from the legendary 2016 Slam Dunk Contest, but there was a different Gordon dunk that will appear at the top of this list.

2011: DeMar DeRozan's Show Stopper: Blake Griffin's homage to Vince Carter (and leap over a Kia) pushed him to the slam dunk title as a rookie in Los Angles, but DeMar DeRozan did his part to put on a show in his hometown. The best of the bunch: a reverse windmill jam, titled the "Show Stopper," that earned a 50 from the judges for the Toronto Raptors wing. Dwight Howard is nothing if not a showman. At no point was that on greater display than during the 2009 Slam Dunk Contest in Phoenix, Arizona.