The annual discourse around “fixing the Dunk Contest” misses that it’s never needed stars. It used to create them, and maybe in some ways it still can.

What Carter did 25 years ago during a rain-soaked weekend in the Bay looked like, and felt like, the apogee of the competition.

The three-point era of the NBA is in full swing, but the dunk is still the league's defining shot. Everyone loves a triple, and the broadening worldwide appeal of the game has a lot to do with the popularization of a shot that anyone can shoot.