Saying “Bye” just as quick as “Hi”.
Ever since the lineup for the dunk contest came out, I said, “What a joke this is going to be.” In fact, at 4:19 PM ET yesterday, I mentioned in my post about how exciting NBA All Star weekend was, that “I really wish there were better participants in this years Dunk Contest.” All of these players can dunk, but with what kind of creativity? JR Giddens could have gone out there and put on a better show than this.
Nate Robinson won the contest, and sure he did some decent dunks, but nothing that would make you say “Wow”. Demar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors came to play, but I am not quite sure how much he really had to offer. He customized the dunk where you are supposed take off from the foul line, but he instead dunked from 6 feet closer on the dotted semi circle. That is embarrassing, but what is more embarrassing is Gerald Wallace. Are you kidding me? You have had weeks to design something in your head, something that would impress the fans, and instead you come out with a dunk in which the most impressive part was where you hung on the rim for 1.5 seconds. You follow that up with a failed attempt in which you finish off with an effortless, meaningless dunk that should have been given straight 0’s.
Now onto the biggest joke of the night. The hype was there, Laker nation made sure we knew that Shannon was going to bring it. When push came to shove, all of the average dunks he does in games, followed him into this competition. Over on “Lake Show Life” they are supporters of Shannon Brown and his average dunk attempts. This is what LSL had to say about the following video:
"While his Obama inspired effort won’t be discussed on SportsCenter, his three throwdowns in preparation for the dunk contest certainly will make many a highlight reel. ShanWow completed the hat trick by catching an oop from Lamar, gliding for a one-handed break away jam and a Jordan-esque tip dunk on a missed free throw.Enjoy!"
Oh trust me… We will enjoy.
Apparently ShanWow is MJ now. And I’ll tell ya what, he proved it last night. I don’t know of too many people in the NBA who could exchange the ball from one hand to the next while in the air. Its not like there are players who put it between their legs, or do 360’s or anything. He followed that dunk up with a spectacular showing, where Kobe came out and threw him a lob, and he threw it down with 2 hands. Simply amazing. I have NEVER (except maybe 1-3 times in every regular season game) seen an alley oop before.
I couldn’t have said it any better myself than when Reggie Miller stated that maybe there should be a website “DontLetShannonDunk.com”. If this contest did not include either Shannon or Wallace, we may not be talking today about how it was the worst dunk contest of all time. How does that make Lakers fans feel? Hype him up, hype him up, hype him up… FAIL, and now your buddy you made sure got into the contest can write his name beside the title “Worst Dunk Contest in League History”.
So come on now Laker fan, stop with all the Brown talk. He proved last night that all this talk behind closed doors on non nationally televised game was a load. If it werent for the watered down field, Shannon wouldn’t have even tied for last place.
Note to the NBA and players: Next year have a competition with Howard, Lebron, DWade, and Josh Smith. Although there is little likelihood of all those players participating, it is nice to think about how entertaining that would be compared to scraping 4 average players off the street.
(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)