Stephen A. Smith Called the Dunk Contest a 'National Atrocity' and Wants to Change It to a Nationwide Search for the Best Dunker

Stephen A. Smith was correct: somebody had to stand up and declare Saturday night's NBA Dunk Contest a national embarrassment. I'm pretty sure all of Twitter did that in real time, but it's always more entertaining when Stephen A. is pissed off.

The dunk contest hasn't been good in years, but what we saw this weekend was a special kind of bad. I had it on around some people who don't really watch sports and it was hard to even describe to them what was supposed to be happening, given the infrequency with which any dunks were occurring at all. It was mostly just guys throwing the ball in the direction of the basket, jumping up and then coming back down with the ball in their hands. It was as tough a watch as you could possibly script.

I honestly don't hate Stephen A.'s American Idol-esque dunk contest replacement. I am positive I could leave the Barstool Sports office and find four guys in New York City who could at least complete a dunk of some level of difficulty by the end of the day. Hell, take it one step further and let the NBA guys compete against the Average Joes and see who comes out on top. Anything would be better than what Jalen Green and Cole Anthony were doing the other night.

We're at a point now where short of a new superhuman athletic feat, we're not going to see anything new in the dunk contest. Pretty much everything has been done by now. So fuck it, let's round up guys from parks around America and see what they can do. I'm all for it.

While we're at it, can we get regular dudes to play Augusta National the week after The Master's? That would be far more entertaining than guys who can shoot under par on that course and I'd watch every stroke.