The NBA has tried for many years to make the dunk contest relevant again, and for those many years they have failed. I don’t know if anything will restore the luster that the contest once had, but putting in a non-spectecular dunker in Giannis Antetokounmpo definitely won’t help.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Giannis. He dunks it easily and regularly, and is capable of some pretty good in-game dunkage. That’s not what the dunk contest is about. It’s about who can do they craziest stuff with unlimited time, props, and corporate sponsors. The best chance for Giannis to impress would be to just trot Chris Bosh out there to get postered again. Or do a three-point line dunk.