The Slam Dunk Contest on All-Star Saturday night is regularly one of the most anticipated events of the All-Star weekend.
There was a time when the NBA All-Star Game was a one-day event held in the middle of the week without much of a buildup or hype. However, when the American Basketball Association was the NBA's rival in the late 1960s and '70s, it had to do whatever it could to get attention from the mainstream media.
That league featured some of the game's most brilliant individual players, and when the ABA's higher-ups decided to show off the dunking talents of the league's biggest stars, it turned into an immediate hit.
The first All-Star dunk contest was held in 1976 at McNichols Arena in Denver, the home of the ABA's Denver Nuggets. The contest featured Julius "Dr. J" Erving, David Thompson, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin and Larry Kenon, and it was a spectacular success.
The incredible leaping of Erving and Thompson turned the event into a classic, and Erving capped things off by using a running start and taking off from the foul line before dunking the ball down in front of a roaring crowd.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Steve Silverman
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