Vince Carter Reveals NBA Tried To Elevate Dunk Contest With Kobe Bryant, LeBron James & Tracy McGrady

Putting a $1 million prize and having Bryant, Carter, James and Tracy McGrady pit against one another could have been the most intriguing dunk contest of all time. A year isn’t stated, but it likely would have been in one of James’ first years in the league.

Getting one of the most hyped rookies of all time with two elite physical specimens in Carter and McGrady next to the three-time champ and previous Dunk Contest winner in Bryant would have made for a show. But Carter says not everyone wanted to do it, and James has famously been against the Dunk Contest for the entirety of his career, always saying he might participate but never actually doing so.

Maybe this type of incentive is what the league needs to try and bring back in order to make it an exciting event again. As it stands, the future of the contest looks less than promising.

Lakers’ LeBron James discusses difficulty of All-Star Game

Everyone involved in the NBA All-Star Game knows it’s in need of some type of rejuvenation. However, James argues why that may be difficult given the way the league has gone in recent years.

“I don’t know,” James said. “I think it’s something we need to figure out. Where is the median? This is what a lot of the games are starting to look like too. We wanted to get more pace into the games. We wanted to get more shots. We wanted the game to be more free flowing. We stopped letting the game — be freedom of movement, a lot of freedom of movement now. That’s what our games are like in the regular season now.”