Dunk Contest a Yawner

I tricked myself into thinking the Dunk Contest was back and better than ever. With the performances of Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard the past two years, I was convinced we were back to the vintage days–from Dr. J. to MJ; Kobe to Vincesanity. So being the naive little basketball fan that I am, and with the allure of my boy Shannon Brown in the Contest this year, I had prematurely declared the Contest to be back on top–for good.

I should have known better. The NBA has been going to gimmicky formats (the Dunk-In, texting the winner) in order to create buzz and a draw for the Contest. They have to keep on thinking of ways to reinvent the Dunk Contest because nobody worth a damn ever wants to compete in it anymore. I thought that Dwight Howard was going to start the trend back up of premiere NBA’ers in the Contest. LeBron verbally committed last year, which if your a Tennessee football fan, you and Lane Kiffin know just exactly what a verbal commitment really means. So instead, the Contest consisted of a rookie who won his spot, a former 5’5″ champion who has sat the majority of the season–coaches decision, a first time All-Star and a role player who averages seven points a game (sorry Shannon).

Needless to say, there was only one “50” dunk, which was by default, amongst a series a pedestrian dunks that I’ve seen at a Gus Macker before. The atmosphere was the opposite of electric. I never thought the highlight of NBA All-Star Saturday night would have been Kenny Anderson hitting a half-court shot in the 2-Ball Competition. There was not even close to a definitive dunk of the Contest. I’ve seriously already forgotten what dunks there were. But I guess that could have been because the Dunk Contest was so boring I turned it to Olympic speed skating.

SOLUTION-David Stern, please get on your knees and beg LeBron, Dwight and Dwayne to do the Dunk Contest. Make them an offer (or a charity of their choice) they simply can’t refuse. If those players would have done the exact same dunks performed tonight, they would have been sweet. There would have been higher elevation, more hype and definitely a more fired up audience.

Oh yeah, Nate Robinson won the 2010 Sprite Dunk Contest…or something like that.