“9 Was Windmills”: Michael Jordan And Dominique Wilkins’ 1988 Slam Dunk Contest Gets Clowned on by Gilbert Arenas

On a recent Gil’s Arena episode, former Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas talked about the 1988 Slam Dunk contest. Marketed as the “dunk contest of dunk contests”, the likes of Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan went head-to-head, with MJ coming out as the winner in a controversial fashion. Arenas, however, questioned the quality of the dunk contest, claiming that most of them were “windmills.”

Gilbert Arenas hilariously explained that no matter how they talked about the shots, most of the dunks the players pulled off could be seen as windmills.

He talked about how he personally would have judged those contests, claiming that he would not give 50 points to the same shot being repeated every year, as seems to have been the trend back then. The clip was shared on Instagram by ‘entirely.nba’.

Gilbert Arenas thinks all dunks in the 1980s were windmills

Arenas talked about how overall dunking has constantly and comprehensively improved since the 1980s. Talking about the 1988 dunk contest in particular, he claimed that most of the shots Wilkins and MJ pulled off will now be seen as windmills.

Arenas explained that no matter what angle the shots were viewed, they were still windmills at the end of the day. He used the argument to question the quality of the dunk contests back then, claiming that he would personally not have given 50 points on each of the shots,

“You watch them now, you realize, out of 10 dunks between Jordana nd Wilkins, 9 were windmills. I don’t give a sh*t how you did the windmills. Windmill from the middle, I am going to the side, it’s a windmill, s**t don’t change. It’s still a windmill, between-the-legs windmill, come off the baseline windmill, spin windmill. Every year, we know what Dominique is going to do, we know what Jordan will do. It is a windmill. I am not going to give you the same points each time you do the same dunk, I am sorry. It’s a windmill!.”

While Michael Jordan ended up winning the 1988 dunk contest, it was a controversial call. Quite a few critics claimed that Dominique Wilkins had been robbed of the award, including Michael Jordan himself. For Arenas, however, the quality of the dunks during the 80s was the problem, rather than any specific dunk contest.

Dominique Wilkins criticized players for not participating in dunk contests anymore

Dominique Wilkins had recently claimed that the current generation was not interested in competing in dunk contests. Speaking to Vlad TV, Wilkins talked about how back then, even players wanted to know who the best was.

However, nowadays, nobody cares enough to find out, claiming that some players tend to think that losing them would somehow impact their legacy. However, Wilkins claimed that wasn’t the case.

He said that during his and MJ’s time, even the players wanted to be tested, and find out who the best was. This led to them giving it their all during dunk contests as well, something which does not seem to be true anymore.

Share this article

• Dominique Wilkins
• Gilbert Arenas
• Michael Jordan