Mac McClung can get Ja and Zion to participate next year.

Zion with his injury history (and likelihood of another HUGE contract after this one) isn't going to risk getting hurt for the dunk contest just because a G-Leaguer calls him out. Why would he (or Ja for that matter)?

Endorsements? He's already got them. An easy way to lose them would be to get injured and miss a season/post-season, or worst case scenario end his career.

Money? Yeah, that 100k is nice...but minimizing your risk of unnecessary injury so you can keep signing max contracts is probably nicer.

Fame? Zion/Ja don't need more fame, they're already among the new faces of the league.

As far as risk/reward goes the chance for a player who can avg 50m+/yr going forward to injure themselves and have a setback long-term aren't worth the relatively minor accolades a dunk contest win brings.

/r/nba Thread