Who are the participants of the 2024 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest?

It’s NBA All-Star Weekend and top of the bill in Saturday’s Skills Challenges is the Slam Dunk Contest in which four players will be attempting to be crowned All-Star Dunker. We have seen some highly creative dunks over the years - who can forget Cedric Ceballos’ performing his blindfolded in 1992? Vince Carter’s explosive dunk in 2002 - full 360-degree spin included, or Terence Stansbury’s similar but slightly more graceful, acrobatic effort in 1985? All of them, awarded the maximum score of 50.

Using the backboard to bounce the ball, passing it under the legs, backwards dunks, using props or accomplices… Last year, Jose Alvarado gatecrashed Trey Murphy III’s attempt, racing on-court and stealing the ball from him while he was working up the crowd - only to find out it’s not so easy to upstage the Pelicans forward, who won the ball back just in time to slam it home. The plan worked to perfection.

This year’s contestants will likely have something similar up their sleeve. The four players will be taking part in the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest are the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr, the New York Knicks’ Jacob Toppin and last year’s winner Mac McClung. McClung clinched the 2023 Slam Dunk title with perfect scores on three of his four attempts. He will be attempting to retain his crown and join a select group of players who have won the contest in consecutive years.

During the 40 years since the first Slam Dunk contest in the mid-80s, just four players have won back-to-back titles. Michael Jordan was the first to win in successive years, winning the 1987 and 1988 contests. It was another 14 years before another player managed the feat - Jason Richardson did it in 2002 and 2003, and he was followed by Nate Robinson (2009 and 2010) and Zach LaVine (2015 and 2016). Will Mac McClung join them?

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest is a two-round competition, with each dunk given a rating from 40 to 50 by a panel of five judges. The four contestants each get two dunk entries in the first round, with scores for each dunk of the night ranging from a maximum of 50 to a minimum of 40. The two contestants with the highest combined score for their two dunks advance to the finals, with a tie being decided by the judges.

Players get three attempts to complete each of their dunks in both rounds, with the NBA defining an attempt as a player controlling the basketball and moving it toward the rim. Props used in a dunk attempt must be approved in advance by the NBA Basketball Operations department.

Each dunker will be given a time limit of 1:30 minutes to complete their dunk, plus one additional try and will be limited to three attempts. The NBA rules state that “an attempt is defined as the player controlling the basketball while airborne and moving it towards the rim” while a “try is defined as any action taken in effort to attempt at dunk”.