Did mascots kill the dunk contest star?

Even though I am a basketball fanatic, I do not enjoy watching the slam dunk contest any more.

Is this a sign of old age setting in for me?  Shit, I hope not!  So maybe its just not the spectacle that it once was.

Even Dr. J isn’t pleased with the contest any more, saying:

“It was great seeing regular human beings running and dunking a basketball. When mascots started doing it with trampolines and all the crazy stuff it became more like the X Games. The players can’t live up to that.”

The thing is, though, mascots like the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, have been using trampolines for several decades now.

Truth is that mascots didn’t wreck slam dunk contests though.

Vince Carter did.

Well, VC and the latest lineup of NBA “superstars” are wrecking one of the NBA’s most cherished annual events.

So if Adam Silver is actually serious about taking the NBA to the next level he should focus more of his attention on preserving the sanctity of what makes the sport of basketball special in the first place.  And stop trying to alter the public’s perception on gambling.

Nobody knows who Zach LaVine was before winning the 2015 Dunk Contest and they forgot about who he was by the following morning.  And if Silver knew anything about marketing, he would have had one of his premiere players competing in that contest.