Over the course of his eleven year NBA career, LeBron James has won four league MVP awards, two NBA Championships with the Miami Heat, two Finals MVP awards, and he is also a ten time All Star. In my opinion, there are only two things that LeBron is missing from his list of achievements in the NBA thus far: Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Dunk Contest participant/winner. As far as the first point goes, James has been on the first team All-Defense the last five years, but has never been the overall Defensive Player of the Year.
But the second point is what I would like to focus on. Fans of basketball have been wanting to see LeBron's name in the field of Dunk Contest participants for years now. James is one of the best in-game dunkers in the NBA at the moment. I would put him and Blake Griffin at the top of that list. James is, what most people refer to as, a power dunker. This is where people may argue that he does not belong in the Dunk Contest since he is not the most acrobatic dunker. However, James has proved these naysayers wrong the last couple of years.
The last two Februaries, LeBron has shown off his flashy dunks to the public. Not during All Star weekend, but in pre-game warmups and practices. Last year, James showed that he had a couple contest worthy dunks in his arsenal. Whether it was his powerful tomahawks, between the legs dunks, or the 360 under the leg self ally-oop, James left fans curious as to why his name was not included in the 2013 Dunk Contest.
In the past two days, LeBron has had some high flying moments that have fans asking this same question. On February 10th, the Heat were in the Phoenix practice facility preparing for the next day's game against the Suns. LeBron decided to show off a couple of dunks in the Phoenix Suns' practice facility. Both of these dunks consisted of him throwing the ball off of a faraway wall in the gym, then throwing it down with authority. On February 11th, James pulled off another astonishing dunk. In the third quarter of the game, LeBron stole the ball and was all alone on a breakaway towards the basket. He took off from just inside the free throw line and performed a very clean windmill dunk that drew some gasps from the Phoenix crowd.
Some have said that these last two Februaries from LeBron have been to show fans what he has to offer for the contest. If he does these kinds of dunks in any other month, most people would give him a pass. It may come back up if he did not enter the contest, but there would not be anywhere near the outcry as there has been this month, and last February as well. Hopefully LeBron will participate in the Dunk Contest at least once in his NBA career, but I believe the last couple of years were the perfect time for him to compete. James is not getting any younger, and if the Heat keep making deep playoff runs as they have the last three years, there are a lot of minutes being put on his legs.
All of this being said, I am still incredibly excited for the Dunk Contest every year. LeBron not being in the contest does not take too much away from the event, but having him in it would add so much more.
