NBA Slam Dunk Contest
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50 free NBA Slam Dunk Contest trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The dunk contest has been the loudest hour of All-Star Saturday for decades. It began as a ticket-selling gimmick in the 1970s, vanished, returned for good in the 1980s, and has since produced perfect scores, capes, mascots, blindfolds and at least one cupcake. This quiz is about the contestants: the champions, the repeat winners, the runners-up who lost by a single point, and the big men and small guards who surprised everyone. Questions cover every era, from the first free-throw line takeoff to the fan-vote years and the modern tiebreak dunk-offs. It is built for NBA fans who remember where they were for the great ones, and for anyone settling an argument about who dunked over what. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Toronto Raptors star won the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest by hanging from the rim by his elbow?
Vince Carter
Vince Carter's elbow-in-the-rim move is known as the honey dip, and his 2000 show is often called the most memorable contest ever. He never entered another one.
Q 02Which rookie won the 2011 Slam Dunk Contest in Los Angeles by leaping over the hood of a car?
Blake Griffin
Blake Griffin took the lob from a Clippers teammate, Baron Davis, and then won the final with 68 percent of the fan vote.
Q 03Which Atlanta Hawks rookie guard became the shortest Slam Dunk Contest champion ever in 1986?
Spud Webb
Spud Webb beat his own teammate, the defending champion, in the final. Webb said that teammate had never even seen him dunk before.
Q 04Which Los Angeles Lakers rookie became the youngest Slam Dunk Contest champion, winning in 1997 at age 18?
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant was only months out of high school, and he also played in the Rookie Challenge that same weekend in Cleveland.
Q 05Which Orlando Magic center won the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest after putting on a Superman cape for one dunk?
Dwight Howard
Dwight Howard took 78 percent of the fan vote, in the first final ever decided by fans rather than a panel of judges.
Q 06Which guard won three straight Slam Dunk Contests from 2023 to 2025, the first three-peat in the event's history?
Mac McClung
Mac McClung won the middle title as a G League player with the Osceola Magic, and in 2025 every judge scored every one of his dunks a perfect 50.
Q 07Which Chicago Bulls star won back-to-back Slam Dunk Contests in 1987 and 1988, the second on his home court?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan sealed the 1988 title with a perfect 50 on his final dunk, launched from the free-throw line.
Q 08Which 5-foot-9 New York Knicks guard became the first three-time Slam Dunk Contest champion in 2010?
Nate Robinson
Nate Robinson needed 14 attempts to land his final dunk for his first title in 2006, and the league limited retries the next year.
Q 09Which New York Nets star won the first-ever slam dunk contest in 1976 by taking off from the free-throw line?
Julius Erving
Julius Erving only had to dunk from a mark inside the foul lane, but he paced out a long run-up and took off from the free-throw line itself.
Q 10Which stand-up comedian did Utah's Jeremy Evans dunk over on his way to winning the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest?
Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart was the prop for the winning dunk, and Evans took the title with just 29 percent of the fan vote.
Q 11Which Minnesota Timberwolves guard won back-to-back Slam Dunk Contests in 2015 and 2016?
Zach LaVine
Zach LaVine scored 200 points across four dunks in the 2016 final, the highest total any round of the contest has produced.
Q 12Which Orlando Magic forward lost Slam Dunk Contest finals in tiebreakers in both 2016 and 2020?
Aaron Gordon
Aaron Gordon's 2020 defeat came by a single point, 48 to 47, even though his last dunk cleared a 7-foot-5 center.
Q 13Which Atlanta Hawks forward, nicknamed the Human Highlight Film, won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1985 and 1990?
Dominique Wilkins
Dominique Wilkins entered five contests and won two of them, leaning on the powerful windmill dunks that were his trademark.
Q 21Which city hosted the first slam dunk contest in 1976 and the NBA's revival of the event in 1984?
Denver
Denver was hosting a struggling league's final All-Star Game, and three executives dreamed up the contest to sell more tickets.
Q 22The 1991 Slam Dunk Contest champion famously bent down to inflate which brand's sneakers before dunking?
Reebok
Reebok got a national showcase for its Pump line when the Boston rookie stopped to pump up his shoes on live television.
Q 23The 2015 Slam Dunk Contest champion made his first dunk wearing a jersey from which 1996 basketball movie?
Space Jam
Space Jam had inspired him to take up basketball as a child, and the No. 23 jersey made him a crowd favorite at once.
Q 14The 2011 Slam Dunk Contest winner famously jumped over the hood of a sedan from which carmaker?
Kia
Kia supplied the sedan, which was later donated to a charity auction that raised money for Stand Up to Cancer.
Q 15Which rapper held the ball for the defending champion's between-the-legs slam at the 2014 Slam Dunk Contest?
Drake
Drake, the Raptors' global ambassador, set up Toronto's defending champion, whose dunk beat Portland's Damian Lillard in a one-on-one battle round.
Q 16Which Milwaukee Bucks forward, then just 20 years old, competed in the 2015 Slam Dunk Contest in New York?
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Antetokounmpo was only in his second season, and he later won back-to-back MVP awards in 2019 and 2020.
Q 17Which Hall of Fame three-point shooter competed in the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest as a Milwaukee Bucks rookie?
Ray Allen
Ray Allen finished fourth that night in Cleveland, long before his outside shooting made him a two-time NBA champion.
Q 18Which Phoenix Suns guard headed the ball, soccer-style, to set up a dunk in the 2005 Slam Dunk Contest?
Steve Nash
Steve Nash's header fed Amar'e Stoudemire for a 360-degree alley-oop that drew rave reviews, though it did not win the title.
Q 19Which rookie won the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest after entering only as an injury replacement?
Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell of Utah was added to the field less than two weeks before the event, after an Orlando forward strained a hip muscle.
Q 20Which Toronto Raptors swingman entered the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest alongside his cousin, the eventual champion?
Tracy McGrady
Tracy McGrady also tossed the bounced alley-oop that his cousin caught and put between his legs for one of the winning dunks.
Q 24Which Portland star, nicknamed the Glide, lost the 1989 Slam Dunk Contest final in his hometown of Houston?
Clyde Drexler
Clyde Drexler entered five contests in the 1980s without winning one, and in 1989 a last-minute replacement upset him.
Q 25Which Phoenix Suns forward won the NBA's first All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest in 1984?
Larry Nance
Larry Nance beat the original 1976 champion in the final, and in 2018 his son opened with a tribute dunk in a retro 1984 Suns uniform and finished second.
Q 26Which Boston Celtics rookie won the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest with a no-look dunk, covering his face in mid-air?
Dee Brown
Dee Brown's no-look finish became so famous that a later Celtics champion repeated it in 2007 while wearing his jersey.
Q 27Which Timberwolves rookie won the 1994 Slam Dunk Contest with a dunk he named the East Bay Funk Dunk?
Isaiah Rider
Isaiah Rider had brashly predicted on draft day that he would win, and his between-the-legs slam made good on the boast.
Q 28Which Golden State Warriors guard won consecutive Slam Dunk Contests in 2002 and 2003?
Jason Richardson
Jason Richardson was the first back-to-back champion since the late 1980s, and he reached a third straight final in 2004 before losing.
Q 29Which Atlanta Hawks rookie won the 2005 Slam Dunk Contest with an alley-oop dunk over Kenyon Martin?
Josh Smith
Josh Smith also pulled on the jersey of a Hawks legend for a tribute dunk, on the night the contest returned to its birthplace.
Q 30Which dunker blew out a candle on a cupcake sitting on the rim during the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest?
Gerald Green
Gerald Green called the dunk The Birthday Cake. He was the defending champion and finished as runner-up that year.