One of the worst in history: How the Slam Dunk Contest unfolded

A strange Saturday night in Los Angeles ended with the worst possible outcome. The crowd at the Inuit Dome - or at least the small group that showed up at what felt like an early hour for the city - went home disappointed after the main event of the evening. The one that’s supposed to deliver. The Slam Dunk Contest, revived in the past decade by the showstopping victories of Zach LaVine and Mac McClung, produced one of the weakest displays in modern history, a gift-wrapped delight for critics of what this event has become.

The final result doesn’t explain everything, but it explains something. The winner was Keshad Johnson, a fringe rotation player on the Miami Heat, crowned only because of the mismanagement of his final-round opponent, rookie Carter Bryant, whose dawdling cost him a victory he had in the palm of his hand. The other two participants - the Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes and the Magic’s Jase Richardson - contributed absolutely nothing. One had the height but never used it; the other is the son of a legendary dunker and showed none of the father’s fireworks.

Why didn’t McClung defend his Slam Dunk title?

The NBA came into the night following three straight titles by McClung, the G League marvel who has never fully broken through in the limited NBA minutes he’s been given. A storyline Johnson, the new champion, might understand well as he works to define his own path in the league. Three wins is the record. And if you’re wondering why McClung wasn’t chasing a fourth, he answered it himself this week: he’d heard rumors that several potential participants would skip the event if he returned. So he stepped aside for at least a year. The result was disastrous.

Johnson, 24, won without impressing. He posted scores of 47.4 and 45.4 in the opening round - just enough to get him through. Hayes embarrassed himself on his first try, one of the weakest attempts seen in years: mistiming his steps, jumping almost under the rim, and finishing one‑handed with no trick at all. Like a routine game dunk, the kind you throw down without burning a single calorie. Richardson showed limited lift and also bowed out, though in his case it’s worth noting he took a nasty fall on one of his attempts and still got up to finish like a pro. Different kinds of effort, each deserving to be evaluated on its own terms.

Johnson wins as Bryant shoots himself in the foot

The final came down to Johnson - energetic with the crowd but lacking the spark needed to elevate his dunks - and Bryant, who flashed impressive bounce and power when he did get attempts off. It didn’t look doomed. And yet it was. The sparse crowd didn’t help, but even worse, we didn’t get the usual first‑row reactions of superstar players losing their minds over a great dunk. There was nothing worth filming, nothing worth jumping out of your seat for, nothing to grab the person next to you and shout about. That’s a problem only the true specialists of the craft can solve.

Bryant left a very clear stamp on his contest: two dunks - one in the opening round and another in the final - built around the same concept. Ball tossed forward, straight‑line run to the rim, and a one‑handed windmill finish. In the first round it was simpler, though still powerful. In the final he leveled it up, which is exactly what you’re supposed to do: he slipped the ball between his legs before finishing the windmill. It earned the only perfect 50 of the entire night.

There isn’t much else to highlight. Hayes followed his disastrous first attempt with a weak second: tapping the ball while running rather than in the air, transferring it from one hand to the other to set up a between‑the‑legs finish that never came together. It wasn’t enough to cool the widespread disbelief at how poor his showing was, though the judges - Corey Maggette, Dwight Howard, Brent Barry, Dominique Wilkins, and Julius Erving, who presented the trophy renamed in his honor - still gave him an overly generous 47.2. Richardson nearly wrecked his back on a run-in from the left side; brave, yes, but not remotely original. And Johnson, dancing with the crowd between attempts, delivered a clean, highly aesthetic first dunk by leaping over rapper E‑40, securing his place in the final.

Los Angeles wanted more. Johnson opened the final with a reverse in which his head nearly grazed the backboard - nice visually. His next dunk suffered from the same mistake Hayes made earlier: jumping too close to the rim, though Johnson at least added a windmill. Still uninspiring. He shouldn’t have won. But Bryant, who only needed to land something solid, missed three attempts, wasted time listening to advice from Vince Carter, and watched the clock run him over and strip him of the crown. Johnson, a born-and-raised Californian, is your new dunk king.

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