History of the slam dunk contest

The Slam Dunk Contest had always been a big hit with fans, but interest in the contest began to wane in the mid-1990s. Initially, it was due to the fact that many players lost interest in competing; some cited concerns of injuries, while others felt that the full repertoire of humanly-possible dunks had already been exhausted.

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With the change in the rules requiring an additional teammate starting in the second round, they proved there were indeed many ways to dunk a basketball that had not been done before.