I remember the commentators talking about it a few years ago -- the difference between Jordan's dunks in the competition and the present day player's dunks.
They noted two things:
(1) We've seen many dunks before. Then repeated and repeated again and again. Less of a wow-factor. Harder and harder to find new dunks. Everything has been done before and seen before.
(2) Jordan could manipulate his arms and legs in the air in a way that made his jumps seem more spectacular which most of today's top dunkers are not doing. They are making a straight jump. The difference is that Jordan looked like he was flying while they are just jumping ... due to the way he could contort his body in mid-air.
The big thing for me is 2-fold.
1st is the wow-factor. Most of what we've seen lately has either been done before or involves to many props (cars etc). This year we got the wow factor back. Some of those dunks were mind blowing.
The other thing is the star-power.
Lavine and Gordon just aren't Michael Jordan