Dominique Wilkins and Nate Robinson Explain Why the Dunk Contest Still Matters

Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte

Old School vs. New School is an eternal sports debate. No matter the sport, the topic, or the actual significance of the conversation, there is almost always a stark divide between the people who remember what ball was like in the ‘80s and those who came of age in the 21st century. The NBA Slam Dunk Contest—which has in recent years been consumed by “This used to be better!” chatter—is certainly no exception. But there’s one gigantic difference between the old heads and the younger crowd when it comes to the Dunk Contest—according to members of each generation who participated in it.

“I never went in the gym before the Dunk Contest and practiced those dunks. Not once!” said Dominique Wilkins, winner of the 1985 and 1990 contests. “I can tell you, neither did Michael [Jordan]. He didn’t have to practice that. He was doing it in the games! I hear about guys now going to secret gyms and all that stuff. We didn’t have to do none of that.”

Counterpoint: “I would practice them all the time,” said Nate Robinson, king of the new school, and the only three-time Dunk Contest champion. “After practice, I would always dunk. In high school, after we got done hooping, working out, training, whatever, we always dunked. That’s how we fell in love with the Dunk Contest. It was always on my mind.”

The 39th edition of the Dunk Contest—which, for many fans, remains the signature event of NBA All-Star Weekend—is set for Saturday night in Indianapolis. Wilkins will be one of four judges, while Robinson will serve as AT&T's Chief Dunk Officer, providing firsthand analysis and expertise on what it takes to excel on dunking’s biggest night. Both men have heard the unavoidable noise about their beloved exhibition being just that, an exhibition. In speaking to the pair, though, I clocked a true sense of pride in their accomplishments, as well as several reminders that their high-wire act is not nearly as simple as the average joe might think.

“I can tell you, it’s not a dog and pony show,” Wilkins asserts. “People who have never dunked don’t realize how difficult it is to do some of that stuff. When you get out there, you have to have a creative mind and the athleticism to do something spectacular. It’s not easy. Anyone can dunk in a game. That’s not difficult at all. But when you’re trying to use style to be better than everyone else? That’s tough to do.”

Apart from playing in disparate eras—Wilkins’ Hall of Fame career spanned from 1982 to 1999, while Robinson’s time in the NBA lasted from 2005 to 2015—the other main separator between the two dunk doctors is their height. Wilkins stands at a towering 6’8”. For Robinson, the Dunk Contest is usually the second thing people think of when his name comes up. The first? His 5’9” stature. “Do you know how hard it is to throw it off the backboard, catch it, go between the legs, and dunk it? At 5’9”! It’s almost impossible,” Robinson says with a good-natured laugh.

The haters love to say that the Dunk Contest doesn’t matter like it used to back when Wilkins and Jordan competed in it, or even when Vince Carter and Jason Richardson made it their personal playgrounds in the early 2000s. The root of that criticism comes from the undeniable fact that superstars don’t participate anymore. (It seems like a lifetime ago, but one of the many grenades lobbed at young LeBron James was that he was ducking the Dunk Contest, whereas Jordan suited up three times.) Both Wilkins—who was honored by the NBA as one of the league’s 75 best players of all-time—and Robinson weighed in on that strange phenomenon and how to inject some life back into the playing field.

“I tell you what? If Ja Morant was in it, along with Jaylen Brown—Anthony Edwards is another high flier, my Georgia brethren—you think the attention wouldn’t be on that contest? I think I gotta get in their ear a little bit,” Wilkins told GQ. When Wilkins won his first dunking hardware in 1985, he beat out three other Hall of Famers in Jordan, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and Clyde Drexler. In 2023, the Dunk Contest was won by Mac McClung, who wasn’t even technically in the NBA, but rather a player for the 76ers’ G League team.

“That’s what I don’t like about the Dunk Contest [now],” Robinson laments. “Y’all threw him in knowing he wasn’t a part of an NBA team. You were scrambling and just put him in the Dunk Contest, now everybody knows who he is and that’s cool, but he wasn’t a part of the NBA NBA. That’s not his fault, he’s a solid player. I don’t understand. He’s good enough for the Dunk Contest but he’s not good enough for a team? That’s kind of weird to me. Personally, I wouldn’t have done the Dunk Contest if I wasn’t on a team for real in the NBA. I want you to take me seriously, not as a gimmick.”

A shock win at the NBA slam dunk contest in February rocketed him into a new tier of fame. But grinding it out in the G League in Delaware, Mac McClung is only focused on one thing: becoming an everyday NBA player.

One thing both Wilkins and Robinson can agree on? The reason most big-name players don’t do the Dunk Contest is simple: They don’t want to lose. Each guy also dismisses that line of thinking as missing the point, saying that it’s really not about winning and losing, but rather giving the fans the best show possible. Robinson revealed that he only did the Dunk Contest in 2010—which he ended up winning, making him the only person on the planet in possession of three Dunk Contest trophies—out of necessity. “The NBA was scrambling, especially that last year. Nobody wanted to do it! I was like, I might as well. I ended up winning it again! That was pretty cool. I wasn’t expecting to win or even do it, and I made history.”

There is, however, a minor downside to being too good at dunking. The more a player showcases their leaping ability, especially in a setting as ostentatious as the Dunk Contest, the more they risk being known as solely a rim rocker. For Wilkins, who currently sits 15th on the league’s all-time scoring list, that was a preposterous notion. “It did bother me for a long time,” Wilkins said of his reputation as a dunk merchant. “When you see highlights, what do you see? Slam dunk, slam dunk, slam dunk. I tell people all the time, it’s very difficult to score 26,000 points on just dunks! Dunking was a tool for intimidation. That’s it, and getting the crowd involved. But I had 40-point games without a single dunk. So I’m like, That’s not all I did!”

Robinson—who had a very fruitful career, played in an NBA Finals, and is still revered in his hometown of Seattle, but unlike Wilkins, was not a Hall of Famer or even an All-Star—didn’t mind that reputation as much. “It didn’t bother me. People wanted to see what I could do! It’s okay. Every time I stepped in the arena, they always wanted to see me dunk.”

In speaking with two of the godfathers of the Dunk Contest, two people who helped it become more than a sideshow, it’s abundantly clear that the event really does matter to them. Reminiscing on his first time in the contest, as a 21-year-old rookie in 2006, Robinson said his anticipation was as high as a ten-foot hoop. “I couldn’t wait, man. I couldn’t sleep all night. I was nervous, scared, everything. I wanted to let everybody know I was here. One of the highest-jumping little guys to ever play in the NBA! I wanted them to respect that. That’s why I had to go and get three of them.”

Also, if you’re wondering, both dudes can still jam. Robinson, who turns 40 in May, will mix it up with his son’s high school team, giving them a few dunks here and there after practice. As for Wilkins, now 64, don’t let his age fool you. The man they called the Human Highlight Film claims he threw down as recently as September. “I try to dunk at least once a year, just to prove to myself that I can still do it, that I still have a hint of basketball left,” he said. “I also have to prove it to my son that I’m not that old, bro.”

Originally Appeared on GQ