NBA All-Star weekend 2024 is sure to be a slam dunk, figuratively and literally.
The highly anticipated Slam Dunk contest is the pinnacle of Saturday's All-Star lineup, following the skills challenge and 3-point contests. But the slam dunk contest, which has featured previous winners like Michael Jordan (1987-88), Kobe Bryant (1997) and Vince Carter (2000), has fallen flat in recent years.
The star power, however, is back. Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown is set to participate in the event, marking the first time an All-Star has participated in the dunk contest since Victor Oladipo in 2018.
Here's everything you need to know about the dunk contest:
The 2024 NBA All-Star dunk contest will be held on Saturday, Feb. 17 in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. (A state-of-the-art LED basketball court will be erected in the football stadium.) The slam dunk contest will directly follow the skills challenge, 3-point contest and the inaugural Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu 3-point challenge.
Saturday's All-Star festivities, including the dunk contest, will be broadcast on TNT, starting at 8 p.m. ET. The night will be hosted by the network's "Inside the NBA" crew – Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith. The event can be streamed online and on the TNT app
Brown will try his luck at the 2024 NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest for the first time in his career. The field will be rounded out by reigning slam dunk champion Mac McClung, of the G League's Osceola Magic; the Miami Heat's Jaime Jaquez Jr.; and New York Knicks' Jacob Toppin. Toppin has his own connection to the slam dunk contest — his older brother, the Indiana Pacers' Obi Toppin, was the runner-up in the 2021 contest and won the following season.
McClung put on a clinic last year, stringing together four dunks that blew both the judges and spectators away. He set the tone with his first dunk of the night, where he leaped over two people, grabbed the ball out of the hands of the person sitting on another person's shoulders and touched the ball off the backboard before dunking it.
"It was a beautiful moment," McClung said looking back at his dunks. "I had so much adrenaline that I really couldn't feel my hands or anything. ... Something else took over me and I was in shock."
Watch McClung's dunks that won him the 2023 title:
McClung, who also won the BallisLife All-America Game Slam Dunk Contest in 2018, will defend his title on Saturday.
The NBA announced that the judges for the 2024 Slam Dunk Contest will be Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame guards Gary Payton and Mitch Richmond, Hall of Fame forward Dominique Wilkins, and former Pacers Fred Jones and Darnell Hillman — both of whom are Slam Dunk Contest champions.
Hillman won his in 1977 when it was a season-long competition, and Jones won his in 2004.
There are two rounds. In the first, each contestant will get 1:30 and three attempts to complete a dunk. An official on hand will judge whether a dunk is completed or missed and any props the players use must be approved beforehand by NBA Basketball Operations. In the first round, each contestant will have the chance to complete two dunks. Completed dunks will be given a score between 40 and 50 points. The average of the five judges will be the final score for that dunk. The two dunkers with the highest composite score from the first round will advance to the final round. If there is a tie after the first round, the judges will then vote to pick the advancing dunker.
In the final round, the dunker with the lowest score from the first round will go first. The same scoring rules as above apply, and the contestant with the higher score will be the champion. In the case of a tie, there will be a one dunk dunk-off. If there is a tie following the dunk-off, then the judges will vote to break the tie as in the tiebreaking scenario from the first round.
Here are the previous five slam dunk winners:
2023 (Utah): Mac McClung (76ers)
2022 (Cleveland): Obi Toppin (Knicks)
2021 (Atlanta): Anfernee Simons (Trail Blazers)
2020 (Chicago): Derrick Jones Jr. (Heat)
2019 (Charlotte): Hamidou Diallo (Thunder)
Check out the full list of winners here.