Last season the East beat the West in the NBA All Star game 134-128. I had to look that up. Last season Sophomores beat the Rookies in the Rookie challenge, same as every year. Last season Jason Kapono won the three-point shootout. I did not even realize he was involved in the All Star festivities. There were a few other contests, but I do not remember them at all.
What I do remember is the vision of a seven-foot tall black Superman launching from a two foot jump a few feet in front of the free throw line and rocketing toward the rim to win the slam dunk contest. He became a rare winner. A winner who is not a guard.
Dwight Howard, a pure physical freak, with footage from NBA.com
There is just something about watching guards fly through the air. It is more impressive because they have more room to fly and because they generally are a little more acrobatic than even the most athletic super tall post player.
The Orlando Magic have the answer to this reality. A player with enough pure leaping ability to remind everyone that Larry Nance once won of these things in a time before MJ and the Dominique.
This season Dwight Howard is back to defend his title and the NBA has filled out the rest of the possible the contestants chosen more carefully than the vice presidential candidates in this past elections season.
One of those contestants is Rudy Gay. He is a desperate attempt by the NBA front office to remind fans that there is in fact a professional basketball team in Memphis. The Memphis Grizzlies may never appear on nationally televised games, so this is their chance to show that they have some talent worth watching.
What would the dnk contest be without a hip hop remix?
Whenever the NBA gets the chance to show a sideshow, they jump on it faster than Britney attaches herself to reputation-killing men. This season’s sideshow is Nate Robinson. He is from New York (big media outlet) and is 5 foot 9 (for a little Spud Webb fanaticism).
David Stern might have hesitated to bring him back after his performance in 2006. But, this guy still plays for the New York Knicks and is proof that little guys can jump too. If anybody outside of New York remembers back to 2006, his dunks were quite pedestrian and at one point he had a Chris Anderson moment where he missed dozens of dunks in a row. He won because he is short, so now we get a David versus Goliath thing going.
Prove posted from Youtube thanks to coverage from TNT
latest attempt by the NBA to increase its market value is to let the fans vote on the fourth contestant. The choices are rookie Joe Alexander from the Milwaukee Bucks (small market, but possibly the token white boy)…
Oklahoma City Thunder’s rookie Russell Westbrook (high draft choice, small market exposure)…
And
rookie Rudy Fernandez (international player, perhaps new dunking market)…
Thanks to NBA.com and Sprite for the footage
So there you have it the field for the Slam Dunk contest, complete with the public relation motivations for each in the hope to sell more NBA tickets.