Rebirth of the Dunk Contest

Cool story about how Rick Welts, now a high-ranking Suns exec, helped bring the Dunk Contest to the League’s signature weekend more than twenty years ago: “Welts pitched a second event day with an old-timers game and slam dunk contest to Stern, who in turn pitched the idea to outgoing commissioner Larry O’Brien. ‘It did not go over very well,’ Welts said. But Stern called back two weeks later and said, “If it doesn’t cost the league a penny and if you don’t embarrass the commissioner on his last weekend, we could see if we could put it together.”