The NBA Wanted A Slam Dunk Contest With Kobe, LBJ, TMac, And Vinsanity. Only One Said Yes

To this day, Vince Carter is the barometer for the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest. Many high-flying athletes have tried to live up to the standard of Vinsanity, only to come up short. Maybe the only way to top this one-man benchmark is to assemble an entire pool of slam-dunking megastars.

According to Carter, the NBA tried to make this happen. On an episode of his “Cousins” podcast, the Basketball Hall of Famer asked his co-host and cousin Tracy McGrady if he remembered the “phone call.” Apparently, the league had pitched an idea for a slam dunk contest to Carter and McGrady.

“They wanted me, you, Kobe, and Bron for a million dollars,” Carter recalled. “I said, ‘I’m in if everybody else is in.”

The problem was that only Carter said yes to the NBA’s grand idea. Still, it’s no exaggeration to say that this would have easily been the most star-studded Slam Dunk Contest of all time.

Presumably, this call took place in the mid- or even late 2000s, as the first All-Star weekend that LeBron James participated in was the 2004 edition in Los Angeles. At the time, the 20-year-old Cleveland Cavaliers draft pick took part in the Rookie Challenge, where he happened to show off some highlight dunks.

As a young LBJ was earning his stripes in the league, the other players in that hypothetical slam dunk event were either establishing themselves as must-watch superstars or (in the case of one) adding to their multi-titled legacy.

In 2004, McGrady joined the Houston Rockets, and Carter moved over to the New Jersey Nets. Just as they did with their former teams (the Orlando Magic and the Toronto Raptors, respectively), the two cousins entertained fans on a nightly basis with their dazzling moves and scoring prowess.

While neither McGrady nor Carter ever played in the NBA Finals during this decade (and, as a matter of fact, the rest of their careers), Kobe Bryant won a string of championships at the start and at the end of the 2000s. Even in seasons when the Lakers weren’t contending, Bryant was pulling off jaw-dropping feats like his epic 81-point game against the Raptors in January 2006.

If Bryant, James, McGrady, and Carter had all agreed to throw down dunks for a million-dollar prize, a record might have been set for the most dropped jaws in NBA history.