{"id":505324,"date":"2026-02-26T12:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505324\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:39:17","slug":"suns-mat-ishbia-eyes-1m-prize-for-dunk-3-point-contest-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505324\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns’ Mat Ishbia eyes $1M prize for dunk, 3-point contest winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brian WindhorstFeb 26, 2026, 09:16 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
\nCovered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
\nAuthor of two books<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

Suns<\/a> owner Mat Ishbia wants more star players participating in All-Star Weekend events when Phoenix hosts the midseason showcase next year.<\/p>\n

To help, Ishbia has offered to pay a $1 million prize to the winners of the 2027 slam dunk and 3-point contests, with another $1 million going to charity in each event.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

“Let’s get the best guys in,” Ishbia said Wednesday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he unveiled the idea. “Let’s make it awesome.”<\/p>\n

The concept, however, would run into some red tape.<\/p>\n

Officials from the NBA league office and players’ union told ESPN such a prize would not conform with the existing bonus structure.<\/p>\n

Ishbia did not consult the league office before making the offer, sources said. But he is motivated to find a way to get more stars into the events.<\/p>\n

The last time a current All-Star won the dunk contest was Blake Griffin in 2011. The Miami Heat<\/a>‘s Keshad Johnson<\/a> won this year’s event in Los Angeles. Damian Lillard<\/a>, a nine-time All-Star, won his third 3-point contest<\/a> in the past four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian WindhorstFeb 26, 2026, 09:16 AM CloseESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-505324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}