The Slam Dunk Contest is a National Basketball Association All-Star Game competition held on the Saturday before the NBA All Star Game. Competitors try and achieve their best slam dunks and they are scored on a scale of 0-10. Six competitors try in the first round, with the top three advancing to the finals.

Jason Richardson, Harold Miner, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan have all won the most titles with two.

The first slam dunk championship was actually in 1976 at the ABA all-star game. Julius Erving won that competition.

Slam dunks during contests will often times include a prop, usually in the form of another teammate or player. Examples of this include Desmond Mason's jump over Rashard Lewis at the 2001 contest, Josh Smith's leap over Kenyon Martin at the 2005 contest and Baron Davis's jump over David Wesley and his camera during the 2001 contest.

Slam dunks during contests can also involve the ball being tossed off a prop. Most times the ball will be tossed off the backboard, or the floor. However in the 2005 NBA Slam Dunk contest, Amare Stoudemire tossed the ball off the backboard, which in turn bounced off teammate Steve Nash's head before being dunked by Amare.

Sometimes a player will attempt a blind dunk without looking. Dee Brown won his slam dunk championship like this in 1991 with the "shielding the eyes" dunk. Cedric Ceballos has also performed a blind dunk; he was blindfolded for one dunk in the 1992 contest.

Michael Jordan and Jason Richardson are the only players that have been able to win the slam dunk contest twice in a row.

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are the only players to have won a NBA championship and a Slam Dunk championship. Jordan was the first (he won his slam dunk championship in 1987 and 1988 and won his NBA championships 1991-1993 and 1996-1998). Kobe is so far the last player to have won a NBA championship and a slam dunk championship (he won his slam dunk championship in 1997 and won his NBA championships in 2000-2002.)

Dominique Wilkins holds the record of participating in the most slam dunk contests. He has participated in 5 slam dunk contests.

Although Julius Erving is regarded by many to be the "Godfather of the dunk," he never won a NBA slam dunk championship.

At 5'7", Spud Webb is the shortest player that has been able to win the slam dunk contest. He defeated his teammate and defending champion Dominique Wilkins in the 1986 contest.

The showdown between Dominique Wilkins and eventual champion Michael Jordan in the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest is widely considered to be the best slam dunk contest ever. Famous dunks during their epic showdown include Dominique's off-the-glass, one-handed tomahawk, Jordan's reverse double pump, Dominique's trademark windmill, and Jordan's immortal double-clutch, free throw line dunk.

The 1997 Dunk Contest is viewed by many as the weakest dunk contest to date. It was during this contest that Kobe Bryant did a between the legs dunk that won the contest. By today's standards, it is somewhat mildly spectacular. The rest of the competition (or lack thereof) had offered little variety to their dunks and this quickly led to fan criticism of it being "boring" which promptly ended the dunk contest temporarily for future NBA seasons.

Because of the 2000 dunk contest, many people have named Vince Carter as the greatest dunker of all time. His dunks of a 360-windmill, 180 behind the backboard windmill, between the legs (with assist from then teammate Tracy McGrady), a normal one handed dunk that ended with Vince hanging from the rim with his elbow, and a 13.5 feet two handed dunk have awed spectators to date.

Historically, the dunk contest drew some mild criticisms. One of those includes how the dunk contest is extremely limited as there are so many times one can be impressed with a 360 dunk or a slightly modified windmill. Because of the physical limitations of the human body, innovation can become dry very quickly. Another criticism is that players who often compete in these contests are seen as dunkers only (with obvious exception to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Julius Erving), which is why notable high flying athletes like Shawn Marion have sometimes refused to participate.