All-Star Weekend: A Sacramento Kings Retrospective

Dunk Contest

Terry Tyler (1986)

Kenny Smith (1990)

Gerald Wallace (2002)

Ben McLemore (2014)

The Dunk Contest hasn’t exactly been a bright spot for Sacramento. Only four Sacramento Kings have ever participated; of them, only two made any sort of impression. The very first was Terry Tyler, all the way back in 1986 (the Spud Webb contest). There’s limited footage of Tyler’s performance and what remains is, um, not great.  Watch his dunk as the announcers tsk-tsk his lack of creativity. He ended up finishing dead last, although he was almost 30 when he participated. Anyway, not a great start to Sacramento’s dunk contest history.

The latest King to participate, Ben McLemore, was only marginally better.  The dunk was okay, although it took him two tries to do it and the whole thing was insanely gimmicky. It involved someone in medieval garb introducing him as Shaq-Lemore and jumping over Shaq in a golden throne. It was pretty embarrassing, to be honest, and the best part about the clip is listening to Kenny and Chuck rag on it the whole time.

Back in the glory days of Kings basketball, Gerald Wallace got to show off his dunking proficiency in 2002.  G-Dub held his own, falling second behind Steve Francis. He also fell victim to a gimmick: The Wheel. This was where each participant spun a wheel that looked pulled from a lousy 70’s game show. Each slice of the wheel contained a dunk “category” (Michael Jordan, the 90’s, stuff like that), then got assigned a classic dunk from that category that the participant tried to replicate.  It was less dumb than Shaq-lemore, but not by much. As a result, it stunted a little of his creativity. Still, Wallace impressed the crowd and didn’t embarrass himself.

Kenny Smith stands as the only King who was ever really competitive. In fact, he damn near stole it from none other than Dominique Wilkins in 1990.  Standing a mere 6’3″, he bested the likes of Shawn Kemp, Scottie Pippen, and Kenny Walker before eventually settling for second place. Part of it is that the crowd loves a small guy balling during these. But Kenny really was impressed with a variety of moves, including a behind-the-back, between the legs, and off the backboard 180 dunk that nearly nailed it for him.

So, surprisingly, The Jet stands as the best Sacramento Kings Dunk Contest contestant. Thanks for trying, Terry.