Why LeBron James Must Participate In An NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Two years ago, I was the prototypical LeBron James critic. I never meant to be a hater–in fact, I had always rooted for him–but instead an objective analyst of the Akron, Ohio native. LeBron’s showing in the 2011 NBA Finals was, in my eyes, indefensible. His numbers (17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game) weren’t dreadful, but his fourth quarter performances–especially in Games 4, 5 and 6–were shockingly pedestrian.

When the stakes were the highest, the then two-time league MVP shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. As the world’s most talented basketball player, he had to be better. End of story.

And, one year following his meltdown against the Dallas Mavericks, James was awarded a chance at redemption against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals, and redeem himself he did. Not only did LeBron lead the Miami Heat to the title in only five games, but his near triple-double average (28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists) earned him Finals MVP.

[RELATED: LeBron James Says He’d Win The NBA Slam Dunk Contest]

Now, as we approach the three-year anniversary of the 2011 NBA Finals, he is a four-time league MVP, a two-time NBA champion, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. LeBron James is, by all accounts, the best player in the NBA. From me, he is almost completely free of criticism.

Almost.

I still believe there is one piece missing from LeBron’s basketball résumé, one piece that would give him the complete package of a modern-day NBA legend.

LeBron Raymone James, you absolutely have to participate in an NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

For years now, LeBron has teased us by (perhaps half-jokingly) entertaining the idea of competing in a Slam Dunk Contest without ever actually following through with it. First, while giving a sideline interview during the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest in Phoenix, James announced to a national television audience that he would enter the 2010 Dunk Contest, only to back off that promise the following year. Then, a week before last year’s All-Star festivities kicked off, LeBron sent out a tweet to his nearly 12 million followers that read “Dunk contest?”.

I noticed the tweet moments after he posted it, and to say the least, I was ecstatic. Surely this meant that my favorite NBA player would be entering himself into the Slam Dunk Contest. Right?

Wrong. Once again, James was only mocking us.

His excuse? ‘Bron claims that he is an “in-game dunker”. But year after year, he takes the time to prove—either during pregame layup lines or after practices—that he can put on a dunk show, as he did Tuesday night in Phoenix at US Airways Center.

Still, he says “thanks but no thanks” to the dunk contest.

[RELATED: LeBron Puts On An After-Practice Dunk Show]

I’m sorry, but at this point, the act is getting old. It has to end. LeBron is now 11 years into his Hall of Fame-caliber career, and he has yet to enter even one Slam Dunk Contest. Are you kidding me?
Understand that I don’t believe LeBron should partake in a dunk contest. I believe that, for the sake of his legacy, he needs to.

This past September, for the second consecutive preseason, LeBron admitted that his goal is to become the greatest basketball player of all time. So I ask you, LeBron James, would it not greatly benefit your legacy–a legacy that you hope will one day be more impressive than Michael Jordan‘s–to enter a Slam Dunk Contest?

Keep reading to hear how LeBron has a chance to do something no one else has ever done…

Unlike James, Jordan was featured in–and even won–back-to-back dunk contests in 1987 and 1988. Right now, at least from where I sit, it feels like LeBron is scared of the dunk contest–scared that a non-first place finish would somehow be damaging to his image.

I know, it sounds absurd: I’m proposing that the same guy whose fearlessness allowed him to knock down a cold-blooded, championship-sealing jumper with 28 seconds remaining in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals is scared of a light-hearted Slam Dunk Contest.

Why THAT LeBron—in 2014, no less—would be scared, I do not know. It’s just the sense that I get.

What I do know is that, whether it be in the NBA Finals or in a Slam Dunk Contest, Jordan was never frightened by the idea of failure. Instead, MJ accepted failure as a part of the sport, and—as he detailed in one Nike commercial—experiencing that failure was an enormous factor to his success.

If I were close to one LeBron James, I would implore him to take a page from Jordan’s book and just compete in a Slam Dunk Contest, without worrying about the possibility of not winning. It would be the perfect next step in LeBron’s quest to become the greatest of all time. And, after all, doesn’t James–as the current face of the NBA–owe it to the league to take part in at least one dunk contest?

In recent years, the Slam Dunk Contest–once the best, most exciting event of All-Star Weekend–has been diminished to a downright joke. Last season, the contest featured James White, Terrence Ross, Kenneth Faried, Gerald Green, Eric Bledsoe and Jeremy Evans. It was, as expected, an unwatchable travesty.

Even this season, with three All-Stars–Paul George, John Wall and Damian Lillard–slated to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest, it doesn’t figure to come close to matching the excitement of, say, the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest or the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest.

But what if LeBron James, the back-to-back NBA Finals MVP LeBron James, were to join the field for the 2015 Slam Dunk Contest at Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn? What if LeBron convinced Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, Andre Iguodala and Russell Westbrook to also join him and (presumably) Paul George?

I could argue that it would be the best dunk contest lineup ever, full of box office NBA stars who are also some of the league’s most skilled dunkers. On basketball’s biggest stage (New York City), the television ratings and the buzz surrounding the evening would burst through the roof. Heck, it could turn out to be the highlight of the 2014-15 season, even more so than the 2015 NBA Finals.

It’s a golden opportunity for LeBron to bolster his legacy in a way that no other NBA superstar–not Jordan, not Magic, not anybody–ever had the chance to do. He could breathe new life into the Slam Dunk Contest and revive what used to be one of the NBA’s brightest nights. Even if James were to fail to win the event, he would be forever responsible for saving the dunk contest. Would that not be the perfect boost to his basketball résumé? Sure it would.

So, please LeBron, for your own sake and for the league’s sake, I ask you to bless us with your presence in next year’s Slam Dunk Contest. You won’t regret it.

Does LeBron’s resume need a dunk contest trophy?

Follow Michael on Twitter at @michaelburke47.

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