DVD Review: Best of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (2012)

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest is an annual anomaly. It's outdated, and every year the league manages to handicap its participants with obtuse rules and regulations. Nobody has any reason to take it seriously. Still, I'm always surprised by just how exciting this piece of fluff can be. It has a tendency to reinvigorate and reinvent itself whenever it seems to grow stale. This breezy 45-minute highlight reel skims the hype and gets to the real, theatrical appeal of the contest. Strangely enough, Best of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest is not a chronological account, but a thematic one recapping the best slams in history. This works quite well, actually, because uneventful contests can be skipped over entirely. Obviously we can all quibble about certain exclusions, but I think this DVD does a good job balancing old clips and new. As you might expect (and respect), considerable time is devoted to legendary high-flyers like Michael Jordan, Dominque Wilkens, and Vince Carter, and even more recent champions like Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Blake Griffin. Thankfully, though, unsung heroes like Dee Brown and perennial underachievers like Shawn Kemp get plenty of time to shine. Plus, it's always nice to hear Ahmad Rashad narrate things. Unfortunately, the scant few bonus features tend to get repetitive as several dunks are featured more than once. Nevertheless, this is a competent little highlight show for one of the most enjoyable, and admittedly overrated, pieces of sports-theatre out there.