This year’s dunk contest was so good Vince Carter even watched it. On DVR.

Vince Carter doesn’t watch the dunk contest anymore.

The winner of the 2000 NBA Dunk Contest and a man who threw down some of the game’s most memorable dunks, he isn’t a fan of where the contest has evolved. But the Grizzlies’ forward admitted he watched the Zach LaVine vs. Aaron Gordon showdown from Toronto. Well, later on DVR. James Herbert of CBSSports.com asked him, and why he might not have been watching live.

“My weekend was on a tennis court being a dad,” Carter said after practice at the ACC on Saturday. “My child, she’s into sports and she’s pretty busy, so it was one of those things: come here or disappoint her?”

As a dad, I get that one. But he did watch it later.

“I knew what Gordon had to offer,” Carter said. “Guys were talking about, ‘This is a good one,’ and blah, blah, blah. People are saying, ‘Should it be a tie?’ I was just like, let me check it out. Half the time I don’t watch it.”

When Carter tuned in, he saw an array of dunks that had never been done in an NBA dunk contest before. That was what he gave the world in 2000, too. When asked to place LaVine and Gordon’s aerial exploits in historical perspective, he declined, but he was clearly impressed.

“It was entertaining,” Carter said. “I was like, OK. There’s been a couple where my daughter, who was young at the time, she’s like, ‘Daddy, this is not good.’ But that’s what the fans want, they want to see entertainment. The ooh, ahh, that’s what you want. And it was great.”

Some people are not fans of the props dunks, but I thought Gordon used the Orlando mascot perfectly. This wasn’t leaping into a Kia ad, these were special dunks. This was one of the best dunk contests ever, maybe the best since Carter won his.

He even seems to recognize that.