There's Zero Reason Why Zion Shouldn't Be In The NBA Dunk Contest This Weekend

With All Star Weekend set to kick off on Friday, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how much more buzz there would be around the Dunk Contest if Zion Williamson was participating. Sure, I get it, he’s not in the NBA right now. But I have a simple retort in the form of a question as my response: who gives a fuck?

Zion is the most electric name in basketball and has been for about two years now. That’s not to say the NBA has been lacking in any sense, but we as a society tend to be obsessed with shiny new toys we haven’t yet broken down and discarded into the trash heap of nostalgia with all our other favorites of years past. Zion will probably participate next year as a rookie but I’m a very impatient person and would prefer if this happened right now. What’s the argument against it? He’s a college player? Big whoop. No one cares. He’s a college student as much as I’m a college student right now. Besides, does anyone give a fuck what team a dunk contest participant represents? Like when Jeremy Evans won did that drum up any more interest for the Jazz? Is John Collins about to turn everyone into Hawks fans if he takes home the crown? Of course not.

Duke has a game at home on Saturday at 6 pm. That will be over around 8:30. I imagine Zion can lightly jog from Cameron Indoors and get to Charlotte in about three flaps of an eagle’s wings and be nice and limber for this event. Basically I just want to see the most viral dunker ever in the contest he was born to dominate. The Dunk Contest already has a stigma of “no one cares we’ve seen all these dunks before” so lets at least see a guy dunk from the three-point line and tap the jumbotron on his way down. Fuck the NCAA and their “rules and regulations” and let’s give the people what they truly want.