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Shaquille O’Neal has had enough with the NBA All-Star weekend slam-dunk contest.
“So, All-Star weekend, forget the All-Star game. The highlight of the weekend was the dunk contest and the three-point shootout. And for the past 10 to 15 years, it’s been sucky, and I feel for the fans,” the basketball icon and power dunker told Yahoo Finance (video above).
O’Neal was in New York City to discuss his new investment and partnership with retailer tm:rw.
Shaq added, “When I was coming up, the best dunkers were the best players in the game. Now the best dunkers are not in the NBA. And there’s a whole phenomenon online. If you go on YouTube, the most-watched clips are dunkers, and it’s these guys that don’t really have NBA-type caliber, but they’re dunking behind their legs. People want to see that. So I’m going to offer them the chance to become professional dunkers.”
Shaq’s new Dunkman League, unveiled earlier this year, is a professional sports organization dedicated exclusively to the “art and theater of the dunk.” In effect, it’s meant to bring the YouTube dunking culture to life in a more formal setting.
Serving as the league’s inaugural commissioner, Shaq designed the platform to elevate dunking from a halftime sideshow into a standalone competitive sport. It will feature a roster of world-class “flight athletes” competing in high-stakes bracket-style tournaments.
The league will use a unique scoring system that moves beyond traditional judges, incorporating “impact sensors” in the backboard and AI-driven motion tracking to measure vertical leap, hang time, and the “shatter force” of each finish.
Shaq tells us he has personally signed up 24 dunkers for the league. It aims to debut in the summer of 2026. The winner will get $500,000.
“My father always said, ‘Hey, if a guy’s family is going to pay money to watch you perform, give them a show.’ So with this dunk league, we’re definitely going to give people a show,” Shaq added.
The NBA Slam Dunk Contest has a storied history.
It began in the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1976, where Julius “Dr. J” Erving won the first-ever competition in Denver by famously leaping from the free-throw line.
The late 1980s solidified the contest’s legendary status through epic duels between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins, as well as the historic 1986 win by 5’6″ Spud Webb.
Vince Carter revitalized the competition in 2000 with what many consider the greatest individual performance in history.
