{"id":66196,"date":"2024-03-06T14:28:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=66196"},"modified":"2024-03-06T14:28:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:28:28","slug":"pelicans-zion-williamson-dunk-contest-promise-with-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/06\/pelicans-zion-williamson-dunk-contest-promise-with-a-catch\/","title":{"rendered":"Zion Williamson Makes Dunk Contest Promise, With A Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson<\/a> is a scintillating player.<\/p>\n

Despite his pronounced scoring efforts and development as a playmaker<\/a>, his dietary habits and lack of durability have dominated discussions about his NBA career. Nonetheless, at 6-foot-6 and 284 pounds, Williamson is like a mesh between Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> and Shawn Kemp<\/a>, routinely accomplishing athletic feats that a man of his size simply shouldn\u2019t be capable of. In short, Williamson is a walking highlight reel.<\/p>\n

Zion Williamson Commits to Slam Dunk Contest<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, Zion Williamson set the NBA world ablaze as he announced his willingness to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest. There is a caveat, as the 2-time All-Star revealed that he\u2019ll only participate if he\u2019s named an All-Star. However, the idea of Williamson headlining the infamous competition already has fans excited about the possibility.<\/p>\n

\n

“I gotta do my part and make the All-Star game. If I’m in the All-Star game, Ill do the dunk contest”<\/p>\n

— Zion Williamson on participating in the Dunk Contest pic.twitter.com\/0nmMmjB9iL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) March 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Addressing the media after the New Orleans Pelicans thrashed the Scottie Barnes<\/a>-less Toronto Raptors, the 23-year-old may just have been in a good mood. Yet, with Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown<\/a> taking part in the 2024 Slam Dunk Contest and bringing star power back<\/a> to the competition, Williamson\u2019s eventual participation is definitely feasible.<\/p>\n

\n

Zion Williamson DESTROYED the dunk contest \ud83d\udcaa pic.twitter.com\/6a5inAdXXS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even more than that, it\u2019s reinvigorating. Many fans grew up watching the league\u2019s top players showing off their craziest dunks. Nowadays, fans never get the chance to.<\/p>\n

Restoring Honor to the Slam Dunk Contest<\/h3>\n

Over the years, NBA fans have become disenchanted<\/a> with the once-popular Slam Dunk Contest.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, there was the issue of star power. Increasingly obscure participants are being given stage. It\u2019s not that little-known or end-of-the-bench players never took part in the competition. However, those players were usually the minority; granted an underdog status that enhanced interest in their participation.<\/p>\n

Another issue seems to be players running out of ideas or leaning too heavily into remaking popular dunks. This relative lack of creativity has even been displayed by Osceola Magic guard Mac McClung<\/a>. In fact, last month McClung won the 2024 Slam Dunk Contest despite completing similar dunks<\/a> throughout the competition.<\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, this isn\u2019t a criticism expressly made to denigrate McClung. His dunks, and that of others, are impressive in and of themselves. Nonetheless, the novelty of the experience has been diminished and that\u2019s worth lamenting.<\/p>\n

In Williamson\u2019s joining the Slam Dunk Contest, there\u2019s obviously no guarantee he\u2019ll win. However, he\u2019s participated in dunk contests before<\/a>, and rocked the rim in various ways. With that said, the success of Williamson\u2019s participation in the contest may not come down to whether he wins the championship but the show he puts on for the fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson is a scintillating player. Despite his pronounced scoring efforts and development as a playmaker, his dietary habits and lack of durability have dominated discussions about his NBA career. Nonetheless, at 6-foot-6 and 284 pounds, Williamson is like a mesh between Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Shawn Kemp, routinely accomplishing athletic feats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":66272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1608,62,3],"tags":[450,2480,639,44533,1684],"class_list":["post-66196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-mac-mcclung","tag-nba-all-star","tag-slam-dunk-contest","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}