harrison barnes slam dunk (Photo: Getty Images via Yahoo Sports)
Golden State Warriors backup forward Harrison Barnes will be participating in the #SpriteSlam Dunk Contest at #NBAAllStar Weekend next Saturday.
The announcement will be official as of the pregame show on TNT before tonight’s broadcast of the San Antonio Spurs vs Brooklyn Nets.
ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account first reported the news, which was later confirmed locally by Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area:
NBA Dunk Contest field:
Paul George
John Wall
Damian Lillard
Terrence Ross
Harrison Barnes
Ben McLemore
(via @ESPNSteinLine & media reports)
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 6, 2014
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Meanwhile, Klay Thompson did not get selected for the Three-Point Contest. More details, later.
A Portland Trail Blazers report by CSN Northwest on Damian Lillard would suggest that, logically, Thompson should be in:
We reported a few days ago that Lillard was pondering the idea of displaying his ups on the grandest stage (at the Slam Dunk Contest) and now we’re told he is all in.
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It doesn’t stop there, however.
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The NBA has broached Lillard with an attractive, unprecedented opportunity. They’ve asked him to consider the Three-Point Shooting Contest as well, another source relayed to CSNNW.com.
……
Going into Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks, Lillard has drained 139 three-pointers this season, placing him third behind Golden State’s shooting duo of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. He’s shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.
Back to Barnes, when we asked Warriors PR staff about his potential selection this morning at shootaround, they responded as follows:
#Warriors PR could not confirm or deny reports that Harrison Barnes is in Slam Dunk field, but said that Barnes would be happy if selected.
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) February 6, 2014
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We saw Barnes at the morning pregame shootaround today and, no, he was not practicing any dunks:
Barnes would later tweet the following:
God is good
— Harrison Barnes (@HBarnes) February 6, 2014
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Barnes is best known on the national scene for his in-game dunk on Nikola Pekovic (click here for the video).
Here’s a compendium of Barnes’s best dunks from last season:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etgMPCQPavU&w=560&h=315]
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