With All-Star Weekend finally upon us, the Detroit Pistons are set to play a decisive role in how tomorrow’s game turns out with both Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren slated to play for one of Team USA’s two squads, and J.B. Bickerstaff will be patrolling the sidelines as head coach. 

But that won’t take place until Sunday night at 5 pm, so the NBA’s pre-All-Star Game appetizer tonight will center around the Slam Dunk Contest and the Three-Point Shootout. Of course, the Shooting Stars Challenge will make its return to All-Star Weekend after a lengthy absence, and former Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton is tabbed to take part in the event, so be sure to tune in for that later tonight. 

In the meantime, take a walk back down memory lane to All-Star Weekend of the past. In the storied history of the Pistons’ franchise, Detroit has sent legions of players to the All-Star Game. A handful of those athletes have taken part in the Slam Dunk Contest while stationed in the Motor City, but no Detroit player has ever won the event. 

While Pistons center Jalen Duren was rumored to participate in the Dunk Contest this year, those reports ended up being erroneous in nature, so JD is not included in tonight’s lineup. But harkening back to past contests, the Pistons have been represented by five different players spanning over the past 50 years. 

Here is the list of high-flying Pistons: 

In the very first year that the NBA held the Dunk Contest, M.L. Carr represented the Detroit Pistons among the field of rim-rattlers, but the contest was constructed much differently than we know it today. Back then, the contest took place during halftime at various NBA games throughout the season, so the event was a multi-venue ordeal that included all 22 teams in the league. During halftime of each game, there was a one-on-one Slam Dunk Contest, and the winner eventually advanced until only one player was left standing– Darnell Hillman of the Indiana Pacers. 

Carr, who spent three seasons with the Pistons after playing in the ABA, did not make the finals of the historic event. 

Nearly 20 years later, the Slam Dunk Contest had already taken the form that we now recognize it today– or at least closer than during ML Carr’s day. The Pistons were represented by Allan Houston, who was quite spry and athletic in his younger years before ankle injuries took a toll on his agility later in his career. 

During the contest, Houston tossed a couple self-lobs off the backboard before slamming the ball home in thunderous fashion to underline his performance. In creative fashion, Houston channeled Diego Maradona or Pele with by heading the ball to himself for another dunk, and the Detroit rep finished off his showing with some inventive flair that the crowd appreciated. 

Houston, however, was overshadowed by the high-flying aerial acrobatics of Isaiah Rider from the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

Several years after Houston took part in the Dunk Contest, the NBA actually took a two-year reprieve from the event in the late 1990s. But when Vince Carter was breaking onto the scene as a powerful, spring-loaded dunker out of Toronto, the league knew that the contest needed to make a triumphant return.

Given what we know now about Vinsanity’s dunking prowess, Detroit Pistons guard Jerry Stackhouse was relatively overmatched in the Dunk Contest, but he still went out there to take on the star-studded field with Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Larry Hughes and Ricky Davis also in the event. 

Stackhouse teamed up with Grant Hill for a tandem dunk that the dynamic duo couldn’t quite pull off, but the Pistons guard did throw down an authoritative 360-degree flush earlier in the contest to save a bit of grace. Eventually, Vince Carter went on to win what would go down as one of the best dunking displays of all-time. 

Over the years, the Dunk Contest has shown to be a difficult proving ground for big men, but Pistons center Andre Drummond did his best to shuck that stereotype a decade ago. For his first dunk, Drummond started behind the backboard before placing a careful pass near the rim for a thunderous dunk, but the crowd wanted more. 

For his second attempt, Drummond brought out Steve Nash from the crowd to utilize the Canadian’s soccer skills for a tandem dunk that subtly alluded to Houston’s head-pass from the ‘94 contest. Of course, Nash also used his soccer acumen to help out Amare Stoudamire in a previous contest, but Houston works better from a Pistons-continuity standpoint. 

With Nash juggling and pulling off rainbow flick after rainbow flick, the crowd grew uneasy before Drummond delivered with a windmill slam to execute the outside-the-box dunk. And in similar fashion to Stackhouse’s experience, Drummond had the unfortunate luck of entering the same Dunk Contest as Aaron Gordon and Zach Lavine, who stole the show in one of the greatest aerial showdowns in the history of the event. 

While Duren will not be the latest Piston to take place in the Dunk Contest, tune in to the rest of the eventful night and catch a glimpse of Hamilton, Houston and Corey Maggette, all former Detroit players, in the Shooting Stars Challenge at 5 pm tonight. 

For more information on the latest Detroit Pistons team or player news, follow @EricJRutter on X for continued basketball coverage. Also be sure to look up Roundtable - Michigan Men Media on Facebook for continued social media coverage of all the sporting teams in the Mitten.