NBA All-Star Weekend is right around the corner, and beyond the All-Star Game, the Slam Dunk Contest remains one of the most anticipated events. Fans tune in each year hoping for perfectly executed performative dunks that bring the arena to its feet. But excitement has varied over the years as the field of participants changes, with some contests falling flat. At one point, the NBA even offered stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, and Tracy McGrady $1 million each to help revive the event’s spark.
Vince Carter Was the Only One to Agree to the NBA Dream Dunk Contest
In a recent episode of Carter and McGrady’s podcast “Cousins”, the two NBA legends revealed that the league once offered them $1 million just to participate in the All-Star Dunk Contest.
The idea was to pit Carter, McGrady, James, and Bryant against each other, given that they were some of the top dunkers in the league in the mid-2000s. Unfortunately for the NBA, only Carter agreed to do the show.
“They wanted me, you, Kobe, and Bron for sure for a million dollars,” Carter reminded McGrady on their podcast. “I said, ‘I’m in if everybody else is in.’ And then… I felt like I was the only one who said yes. Never got a phone call back, and it kind of faded away.”
Vince Carter reveals the NBA offered LeBron, Kobe, Tracy McGrady, and him $1M each to do the Slam Dunk Contest
Only Vince Carter said yes
(Via @VinceAndTmac, h/t @HeatCulture13)pic.twitter.com/lkbF4jGFDp
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) February 11, 2026
According to several reports, each player who declined the offer at the time simply had different priorities. However, one common concern for Bryant, James, and McGrady was the risk of injury.
All three stars had championship aspirations and didn’t want to risk hurting themselves just to give fans a show. Other reports also indicated that the money was big enough to draw them in.
Looking back at the mid-2000s, Bryant, James, and McGrady already had lucrative deals with their respective teams. Making an extra million dollars wasn’t enough to persuade them to risk injury.
The prize pool for the Dunk Contest has historically been modest, often hovering around $100,000 for the winner in recent years, making a guaranteed $1 million appearance fee an astronomical leap.
This aggressive strategy underscores just how concerned the NBA was about the event’s declining popularity during the mid-2000s. They were willing to pay 10 times the usual winning purse just to get the stars in the building, hoping to reverse a trend in which franchise players began opting out in favor of rest.
