NBA Dunk Contest

If the dunk contest is going to be like it was this past weekend, you might as well get rid of it. There were some shining moments, but for the most part I was scratching my head. Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz was your winner for those of you who didn't watch. If you didn't know who he was going into it, you weren't the only one. And if you still don't know who he is, once again you aren't the only one. When you dunk two balls at once, the chances of you winning are very good. The dunk contest is at times the highlight of the NBA All Star Weekend, but in recent years that hasn't been the case. Last year was by far the most exciting contest with Blake Griffin's performance since Dwight Howard's "superman" dunk in 2008 simply because Griffin was in it. We all knew he could jump out of the building, and he didn't disappoint anyone (see link above). I'm sure not many people could name the participants other than Griffin, mainly for the fact no "big name" NBA players want to be in it anymore or be in it at ll. Griffin did have some quality dunks though, like jumping over a car. This year you had Minnesota's Derrick Williams jumping over a motorcycle, which was very phasing because if you're going to jump over a motorcycle when someone jumped over a car the year before, the motorcycle better be on fire. Then there was Paul George of the Indiana Pacers, who's dunk you couldn't see all too well because he turned the lights off, then had black lights on, and a glow in the dark jersey. That one was also puzzling to me. People used to get excited for the dunk contest because the dunks were unique and the guys would show off their athletic ability, not their ability to use as many props as they can. I'm not saying what their doing isn't athletic, because I myself along with many Americans couldn't do these things without the help of a trampoline. It just doesn't get me to jump out of my seat like Vince Carter did in 2000 and like Dwight Howard in 2008. If you ask any NBA fan who they would like to see they would choose players like LeBron James, Derek Rose, Blake Griffin, and Dwight Howard; and they would like to see them do it more than once or twice. Hopefully next year the big time players will get involved and show us what a true dunk contest is about. And to the NBA, when the three point contest is more exciting than the dunk contest, you have a problem.