For 22 years, LeBron James has built arguably the most complete career in the history of the National Basketball Association. 10 NBA Finals appearances, four NBA Titles, four regular season MVP Awards, more points than anyone in the history of the league, and too many records to list in what intends to be a 400-500 word news article. Poke holes in the resume of the Los Angeles Lakers star at your own risk. You’ll eventually arrive at a point where you start to resemble an overmatched waiter at Applebees, grasping at straws and docking points because he never competed in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
Now I’ll admit that the idea of LeBron James in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest is intriguing, even if The King brings more to the table as an in-game dunker than he does in a traditional contest format. But just because LeBron has toyed with the idea of competing in the Dunk Contest in the past and ultimately always passed up on the opportunity, it doesn’t mean his career is invalidated in any way, shape, or form. And predictably, LeBron himself has no regrets about skipping out on the main event of All-Star Saturday night.
“No, there’s no part of me that has regrets about not doing it,” James said on Sunday night, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “Obviously, I had a couple moments where I wanted to do it, and it just never worked out that way.”
It’s not as if LeBron is the only star player who has decided to forego the opportunity to participate in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. We’re talking about a contest that haș been lacking star power for years. Only three times in the last ten All-Star Weekends — Andre Drummond in 2016, Victor Oladipo in 2018, and Jaylen Brown in 2024 — has a player pulled double-duty, participating in both the Dunk Contest and the NBA All-Star Game.
At 40 years old and with nearly 70,000 minutes on his NBA odometer, there’s no incentive for LeBron James to participate in any mostly-meaningless event, and that includes the NBA All-Star Game, which James decided to sit out at the last minute on Sunday afternoon. With who knows how much time left in his career, LeBron is justified in having his sights set on a 5th NBA Title and nothing else.
“With 30 games left and us trying to make a playoff push in the wild, wild West, I felt like it was very important for me to kind of take care of myself and understand what’s coming on [down the stretch],” James said after declaring himself a scratch for the All-Star Game on Sunday night, ending a two-decade-long streak of being a starter in the game.
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