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Vince Carter Forced Tracy McGrady Into Participating In 2000 Slam Dunk Contest

I bet you all remember All-Star weekend’s Slam Dunk Contest in 2000!

After a one-year All Star Weekend layoff, the NBA did not have an All Star Weekend during the lockout-shortened 1998/1999 season, the league decided to bring the Slam Dunk Contest back for the 2000 All-Star Weekend in Oakland.

It would prove to be a huge success and one of the most electrifying dunk contests in league history. The show featured a great showdown between eventual winner Vince Carter, his cousin and then-teammate Tracy McGrady, and Steve Francis.

As you know, Carter won after performing a number of very impressive dunks, including two reverse 360 windmills, a honey dip, and a between-the-legs dunk off a bounced alley-oop from McGrady.

But, what isn’t as commonly know is the fact that Carter had to talk McGrady into participating. T-Mac initially didn’t want to compete, because ‘he knew, that he would lose to Vince’. That’s what McGrady revealed years later on ESPN’s ‘The Jump’.

“We stayed in the same condo building, and of course, I know he’s gonna win. So I didn’t want to get in the dunk contest. I’ve been seeing this the whole year, and we’re sitting in his condo, we go back and forth, and he’s like ‘come on man, get in’. I’m like ‘for what? I’m not gonna…’ so he’s like ‘come on T-Mac, come on. Get in! It’ll be good for us’. I’m like ‘man, I don’t want to get in’. We kept going back and forth for weeks on this, finally I just said ‘to hell with it, I’ll settle this time for a second or third, or whatever it is.'”