Dominique Wilkins on Bradley Beal’s trade to the Suns & evolution of the Dunk Contest | First Take
Dominique Wilkins joins First Take to discuss Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns, Trae Young’s season with the Hawks, whether Atlanta’s decision to trade Luka Doncic will haunt them and more.
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47 Comments
it's clear the media is just trying to force Trae out of Atlanta. He's held to an even higher standard than Luka. Excluding Steph Curry and Luka, you can't name a more accomplished PG in the NBA over the last 5 seasons. Jamal Murray was spectacular in the postseason and just won a chip, but Trae doesn't have Jokic.
Suns will be trash
This may be a hot take. But a prime Ben Simmons would be perfect on the suns
THE HUMAN HIGHLIGHT FILM was dininnit before dininnit!!!!!
This new generation are just afraid of ruining their legacy that's why they don't participate in the slam dunk contest, they don't challenge themselves like MJ and Dominique did.
With 3 injury prone superstars if I'm the coach I'm figuring out a way to make Durant and Beal minutes stay around 30 32 minutes to stay fresh for the season.. if they can keep Durant & Beal healthy they will be a very hard team to beat in 7 games!
I see human highlight I click
They afraid to lose
Clippers need to get Young!
Trade Trae to the Lakers please. Hawks don’t know what they have or how to use it.
sAS complaining about a g leaguer winning it when last year he was saying get guys off the street to be involved in the dunk contests
Stephen A’s dunk contest comment about LeBron James is completely incorrect. This idea that stars don’t want to participate because LeBron didn’t? Then he names players of the past that participated such as Kobe and T Mac. Neither were star players when they participated. He’s just looking at it from the perspective we have now on what they became. Stars post-LeBron have participated in dunk contests, some before they were “stars” as well. Giannis, Dame, Donovan Mitchell, Paul George, Demar Derozan, Zach Lavine, John Wall, Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard etc.
Stephen A’s perspective is always to down the current generation. He makes no mention that the dunk contest was so bad the year Kobe participated that they had to cancel the contest the next year. He also makes no mention of the fact that we’re 30+ years from when Dominique participated. Pretty much every dunk has been done by now, so now it has turned into a prop show. Would anyone be impressed today with people doing power windmill dunks like Dominique was doing in the 80s?
Hank Aaron is Atlanta, Stephen knows little about Atlanta, but I bet he knows where magic city is😂😂😂
JA MORANT SHOULD COMPETE IN THE SLAM DUNK CONTEST TO REDEEM HIMSELF!!!
Nique have to suger Trea. But icy overated
My best game of my career before my back injury was against Dominique and Atlanta but I really like this guy, class personified. Dominique, my brother, Magic, Isiah etc… used to play in summer all star games, Nique was the real deal.
Ra no only one Ice really played in the NBA and Trae is not him.
victim of revisionist history, dude has a statue and no one talks about him. before vince, there was dominique.
Nope. They don't want to risk getting hurt and risk being out for the rest of the season and hurting their team from making the playoffs and possibly going to the NBA finals if there are a contender team back in the days that's why a lot of them didn't play on team USA they did not want to risk getting hurt and being out for the next year and not being able to help their teams make the playoffs and possibly get to the NBA
It's rare for superstars to be in it. A lot of times it's players who are like under 24 and trying to make a name for themselves. For example, neither Gordon or Lavine are considered superstars but they brought life to the dunk contest. There hasn't been one to top their performances since.
Absolute legend
Steven A. Smits countinues to disrespect Luka by intentionally mispronouncing his last name. I think this is racially motivated, if Luka was from Africa Steven would learn his name.
"Its not for you, its for the fans" thats 100% facts
Kings will run them out the gym
Trae best thing have had since wilkins
If people were to ever compare careers with Nique it would definitely be Carmelo in my eyes a great player that didn’t win a Chip but for Hall of Famer
Is Booker any less of a point guard than Murray?
Come on now. Why do people have to keep bringing up the dunk contest like it was so much better in the 80s and 90s?
I totally agree that the best players dunking has a lot more appeal than some end of the bench or, in this case, G-League players competing (That G-Leaguer, mind you, was a much better dunker than anyone in the 80s or 90s). The problem is that Vince Carter ruined it for everyone.
Before Vince, you could win the dunk contest simply by jumping from further away or pulling off a reverse/tomahawk/windmill with enough authority. Vince changed that because he did things that were difficult to do on a 9 foot rim. He added the acrobatics. His dunks were too good for everyone that came before him.
Not many, if any, big stars in the NBA could dunk like that. That is still the case. Lebron can obviously dunk. In his 20s, he could jump through the roof and im sure he could pull off some pretty dunks, but he wouldnt be the best at it.
Nate Robinson won because he was short and could dunk like a guy 6 inches taller than him. Dwight won because he was a big name who could jump really high and was competing against lesser competition. Blake had to jump on to the hood of a car and spend 10 minutes talking about how his friend just passed away to win his dunk contest.
But who has been competing since then? John Wall? Paul George? All good dunkers, but they werent the best dunkers in the league. The best dunkers in the league are dudes you have never heard of who got in to the league on their athleticism. Terrence Ross comes to mind.
But lets also not forget that the greatest dunk contest in the history of the NBA took place in the last 10 year: Lavine vs Gordon. They are better dunkers than literally anyone who came before them in the dunk contest. They could have performed any dunk that MJ or Dominique pulled off, and they would have scored a 45 for them. They were the greatest dunkers and were also able to elevate their games to star status.
And the saddest part? The best dunker in dunk contest history still hasnt won a dunk contest.
So yeah, star players dont want to go out there and perform standard dunks just to win the contest on name rather than quality. They dont practice dunking for show. They are too busy working on their skills. Maybe the best dunkers would get more minutes if they spent more time working on basketball and not dunking?
It’s +650 for the Suns winning the title. Might as well make a bet and take a shot in the dark.
More like the De-evolution of the dunk contest
In my opinion i think the league has became so much about promoting your personal brand more than the NBA that the star player dont do the dunk contest because they actually dont care as much about the fans as we may think. They care more about the money and protecting there brand. Lebron knows if he ever did a dunk contest and lost they would hold that over his head his whole career.
Scottie was drafted by Seattle . Carmelo could of been on those Piston teams 03-08 instead of Darko. Kobe for Vladee from Hornets to Lakers . Lamarcus Aldridge on those Bull teams with young DRose Kirk Ben Gordon Loul Deng Noah just a few examples
6:05 LeBron doesn't want to know who the best is because he knows it's not him.
And I'm not even talking about the dunk contest.
Brothas are starting to get int soccer… in 10 years, it’s over for soccer 💯😂😂😂 As a Blacktino myself, I can see it happen 😎
I think trae and dj are good back court, everyone else just needs to step up especially hunter and collins
"We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret." –Earl Nightingale
Kim wayans got swole
For the dunk contest, they should tie a mini endorsement deal to it
Because for the most part, the only thing that matters to them is the cash
Molly be getting on my nerves she always tryna cut into a mf conversation l”ike oh this ain’t about me stop this right now “and when did she become the main host I thought she was the cohost until like a week ago
Luca Donkeytch is also a point guard smh
My boy!
Trae young is too small to be your franchise player
Why would dbook be point guard us brad Beal sacrificing to be 3rd option to the 1-2 punch of kd an Dbook
SAS just wants to see the best players dunk, not the best dunkers. casual
They should have the all stars vote on who participates. Only other all stars can be voted for. Tired of seeing no named players in the dunk contest
Nique had game, his roster was C’MON MAN!!!!! He was not getting out of the east in his era because of the level of talent he had on his team. He did not have a number 2 or 3.
It would have been funny if JJ Reddick was there😂😂😂