In the rich history of the NBA All-Star weekend, 26 people have won the NBA three-point contest, six of whom have won it multiple times. 28 people have won the Slam Dunk competition, and there are also six players to be crowned more than once.
Despite the countless Hall of Famers and all-time greats that have joined these events, no one has won both.
We all remember the amazing aerial show that the great Michael Jordan showed us back when he won the Slam Dunk title in 1987 and 1988.
But I bet you don’t remember, or maybe don’t even know, that he once joined the three-point contest.
Back in 1990, His Airness joined the event but unlike his performance in the dunk contests, he ended up having arguably the worst performance in the history of the event by putting up only five points.
Another guy who tried to win both events was Hall of Famer Ray Allen.
“Jesus Shuttlesworth” has always been known for being one of the best shooters of all time.
But in 1997, things were very different.
Although, he already possessed the shooting, Allen was known more as a slasher and an athletic finisher. That’s why it wasn’t really much of a surprise when he joined the 1997 NBA Slam Dunk contest.
Yes, that’s the same dunk contest that featured a young Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, that year’s battle was dubbed as one of the WORST of them all and Allen is one of the reasons why.
He put up three disappointing dunks that gave him a total of 35 points, which wasn’t enough to advance in the Final round.
Luckily for Allen, he still got one trophy out of the two events in the 2000 three-point contest after beating the likes of Jeff Hornacek, Allen Iverson and Dirk Nowitzki.
Unfortunately, like his dunk contest in 1997, the 2000 Three-point contest is also arguably the WORST one.
In 1996, another slam dunk champ tried his luck in showing his long-range acumen.
Brent Barry put up one of the best dunk contest performances of all-time. Capping the whole thing off with his own version of the free-throw line dunk, looking like he’s literally gliding in the air.
That performance ended up as one of the most memorable, but he could’ve added a three-point contest trophy to his resume back in the 2003.
He came very close as he reached the Finals, but he still lost to the eventual champion Peja Stojaković.
These three rare examples are proof of how hard it is to win both events. You could argue that it would be hard to have the creativity in dunking and the cold-blooded genes needed to win the three-point contest at the same time, right?
I mean, that would just be cheating.
However, this year, Chicago Bulls’ star Zach LaVine is the next in line to take a shot at it.
He’s about to have a busy time in the upcoming 2021 All-Star weekend as he’ll both be in the All-Star game and take a shot at the three-point crown.
As we all know in the past, LaVine has proven that he’s a god in the dunk contests. Don’t believe me?
However, he is showing this season that he’s as deadly from the deep as he is with his dunks.
This season, he’s shooting a career-high 43.3% from the three-point line as well as 52.2% from the field. He also dropped his career-high in threes this season when he knocked down 10 three-pointers against the Clippers.
It may take a while before the UCLA product finally wins a ring in the league but it’s surely possible that he could once again add another individual award in his trophy case very soon.
Do you think LaVine can win the three-point contest? Sound off in the comment section!
