Welcome to CP’s house (Photo. Mannion)Just like I did last night with the Rookie Challenge, a running diary of All-Star Saturday Night. Keep checking in throughout the events for periodic updates…
For whatever reason, they’ve decided to have the most gridlocked entrance area ever to get into New Orleans Arena. I find myself waiting in a jam-packed line next to Juan Carlos Navarro (and the camera crew that’s been following him around all weekend) and right behind Mr. and Mrs. Spike Lee. I met Spike once, at the ‘06 NBA Draft. I introduced myself, told him I was a fan of his work … then I pretty much gagged trying to think of something else to say. Not my best work.
Finally inside the arena, I’m there just in time for the intros of all the Shooting Stars, Skills Challenge, Three-Point Shootout and Dunk Contest participants. After “Oh Canada” and the “Star-Spangled Banner,” the Shooting Stars get to warming up.
SHOOTING STARS
The teams for Shooting Stars: Detroit has Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash and a very tan, very large Bill Laimbeer. Phoenix has Amare, Cappie Pondexter and Eddie Johnson, the best shooter in the building tonight. Chicago is repped by Chris Duhon, Candice Dupree and B.J. Armstrong, who’s introduced as a “Chicago Bulls legend.” I wouldn’t say all that. San Antonio has Tim Duncan (I’m shocked he agreed to do this), Becky Hammon and David Robinson.
I don’t feel like explaining the rules.
Chicago’s up first, and Duhon drains the half-court shot at the 39.6-second mark. Phoenix finishes in 50.9, after Eddie shockingly struggles with a simple three from the wing. The Admiral struggles even more with an easy banker, but San Anton still finishes in 41.4 due to Duncan’s shooting. The Detroit team gets a 50-something, but I can’t get over how old and tubby Laimbeer looks. I think Willis Reed would post a better 40 time at this point.
During the commercial break, the Milwaukee Bucks trampoline-dunking squad does their thing. The last guy does the Randy Moss “dance” after his dunk. Does he know what that means? This is a family show, my man.
The finals has San Antonio up against Chicago. Robinson has no trouble with the bunny shot this time, Hammon struggles a little with the elbow three, but Duncan is cash — he nails his first attempt at a straightaway three and hits his 2nd or 3rd half-court try. Their time: 35.8 ticks. Chicago put themselves in great position to win, but they can’t hit the half-court shot. Once it’s clear they’re gonna lose, the PA announcer says, “It’s just for bragging rights now.” Ummm, that’s all it was for in the first place, right? The big phony check goes to a local school. Oh wait, there is a trophy. I’ll bet all the money in my pocket right now that thing ends up at Hammon’s house before it’s all said and done. Or maybe in the Spurs’ facility.
SKILLS CHALLENGE
D-Wade, Deron Williams, Jason Kidd and Chris Paul. My pick is J-Kidd. I still think this thing would be more entertaining if they used players 7-foot and over who don’t start for their NBA teams. I’m thinking David Harrison, Jerome James, DeSagana Diop and Kwame.
While the announcer goes over the rules, everyone gets in some practice except for Paul, who’s being interviewed. J-Kidd works on the chest pass, Deron on his jumper and D-Wade on the bounce pass.
D-Wade had some issues. (Photo. Mannion)Deron is up first and gets it done in 31.2 seconds. Kidd is up next and has problems with the jumper (of course. Why did I pick him?) He finishes in 39.7 seconds while his son (you know the one) talks to Deron on the bench. CP hits the jumper on the first try and posts a 29.9 score. D-Wade dribbles off his foot (!), then can’t hit the jumper, then can’t get the last chest pass. He does the rest of the course at Shaq speed, THEN misses two layups. He gets a 53.9 score, sending CP and Deron to the finals. I know they have a rivalry and Deron is insanely competitive; does he care about this?
I forgot to mention that in the Sheraton hotel lobby before I came here, I saw Damon Jones in one of his typical grown-man clown outfits, and Dikembe Mutombo outside yelling at his kids to stop running in the street.
Chris Tucker and Alyssa Milano are on celeb row. Smokey looks like he hasn’t slept since I saw him at the Boost Mobile party on Thursday night.
I think Deron cared. He gets a 25.5 in the Finals, a new Skills Challenge record. Pretty much a flawless performance. CP is shaking his head. I think he knows he’s done.
Chris had to be flawless, and he wasn’t. Not bad at all, but Deron wasn’t losing that one. The New Orleans crowd is less than pumped that their man got knocked off.
THREE-POINT SHOOTOUT
Your contestants: Dirk, Nash, Rip, Kapono, Boobie and Peja. No mask for Rip; is he better off without it since he’s been wearing it in every game for years now?
Arnold is in the house. Crowd doesn’t seem to care too much. Maybe if the announcer hadn’t introduced him as “Governor of the great state of California,” and they’d gone with a montage of Terminator and Commando clips, that would have got the job done.
The Dime crew (lonely ol’ me on press row and everyone else schmoozing in the NBA suite) is drafting favorites for this event. I’m taking Rip, who’s up first.
Rip got a 17 initially, but it gets knocked down to a 14 because he stepped on the three-point line on a couple of shots. I’d make it racial if it wasn’t the right call. Daniel Gibson gets a 17 and congratulations from Damon “Patch Adams” Jones. I feel like I should be paying to see Damon with this act.
Nash (one of the best shooters in the League that no one talks about because he’s such a good passer) doesn’t do so well, getting a 9 and didn’t even finish before the clock ran out. Didn’t Michael Jordan fail to crack double-digits one year in the three-point contest? The most memorable bad performance for me will always be when Sam Perkins was on the Sonics and competed. Leading up to the contest, all of us in the 206 were just hoping Big Smooth would finish in time with that super-slow release of his. Sam did finish but got a weak score.
(Photo. Monte Isom)I just got handed quotes from Deron Williams’ post-Skills Challenge interview session. Asked about the finals coming down to him and Paul, Deron said, “Yeah, of course it had to. It’s a rivalry, so we like to go against each other.” Asked if that settled it once and for all, Deron said, “No, I was just out there having fun. It was just coincidence.” Deron also said he’s going to put away the $35,000 prize money “for a rainy day.” If that has anything to do with a Pacman Jones rainy day, I’m steering clear of D-Will for the rest of the weekend.
Dirk gets a 17 after going 8-for-10 on the two wing racks. He barely gets off the last shot, which hits the side of the backboard.
I think the guy sitting next to me works for the Hornets or for a local paper, because he was way into Peja’s performance. When Peja missed his first few shots, the guy was saying “Oh no!” with every brick. Peja gets a 15, knocking out Rip, who will definitely take issue now with the ref cheating him out of his rightful score. Kapono’s up last, needing a 15 to advance.
Kapono catches fire on the last two racks and ends up with 20, knocking Peja out and setting up the finals: Gibson, Dirk, Kapono.
Gibson gets another 17. His form is textbook, isn’t it? He should be on those “Better Basketball” DVD’s instead of J.J. Redick. At least Gibson gets playing time in the League. And it’d be funny hearing his country self doing an entire instructional video.
Dirk posts a 14, and it’s down to Kapono now. I hope Boobie wins this. After all, Dirk gets paid franchise dollars, Kapono just signed a big deal in the offseason … Gibson is still on his rookie deal. His SECOND-ROUND PICK rookie deal, nonetheless.
Of course, right after I post that, Kapono goes NUTS, posting a 25. That ties the all-time record for a round. Kapono had Gibson beat before he was done with the second-to-last rack, then went 4-for-5 (with the money ball) from the corner. He finished and got a huge bear hug from Chris Bosh.
SLAM DUNK
Although no one calls it a “slam” anymore, they should keep the name of this contest simply to honor Dr. Jack Ramsey and the late Chick Hearn.
Looking at the quotes from Duncan, Robinson and Hammon after the Shooting Stars, here’s Duncan’s answer when asked if he’d ever hit a half-court shot before: “Absolutely. I make them all the time. That’s not even sarcastic, that’s actually true.”
Your judges for the dunk contest: Darryl Dawkins (he’s always available), Dominique Wilkins, Karl Malone, Magic (who gets a much louder ovation than the Louisiana native Malone) and Dr. J (also a huge ovation). No Michael Jordan this year, although he’s definitely in New Orleans this weekend.
The competitors: Jamario Moon, Gerald Green, Dwight Howard and Rudy Gay.
Senor Brolic. (Photo. Mannion)I’m still not sure how this text-message voting thing with the fans is supposed to work. Not that I doubt the process, I literally haven’t read how it’s supposed to work.
First up: Jamario Moon. The always make the rookie go first. Off the bounce, 360 catch with a one-hand finish. Nice. Dwight approves. Reminiscent of Fred Jones with a twist. He gets a 46.
Rudy Gay misses his first and makes the second, a lefty cradle/half-windmill. Not a bad dunk, but Rudy made it look too easy. Dikembe does not approve, and Rudy get a 37. Was that the dunk the fans submitted?
Dwight wants to dunk on the opposite-end hoop because a camera is in his way on the other hoop. He looks like he’s going for the Andre Iguodala dunk … He misses the first attempt … and puts down a left-handed windmill where it looks like his body is behind the glass when he dunks from my angle. CRAZY. Yep, he was behind the backboard. 50, no doubt.
Gerald Green brings out a big ladder. Rashad McCants climbs up holding a birthday cupcake and puts it on the back of the rim. What the hell is this kid about to do?
McCants gives him a bounce pass, Green goes sky-high, BLOWS THE CANDLE OUT, and dunks with his head at rim level. I loved that for some reason. He gets a 46.
As the man with the low score, Rudy Gay is up first in Round 2. This is late, but my pre-contest pick was G-Money. Let’s see if that hold up. Mike Conley lines up in front of Rudy on the baseline, kind of like Pierce and Green last year. Conley bounces it off the basket support behind the hoop, and Rudy polishes off a windmill. That gets a 48. Sick, but again, Rudy makes it all look so easy.
Moon’s second dunk: He brings out Kapono and puts down a strip of tape well behind the free throw line. Moon takes off from inside the tape and inside the FT line (still a hell of a long way to fly) catches off a bounce from Kapono and finishes lefty. The crowd was way less impressed when they saw where he took off from on the replay. He gets a 44.
Green brings out the ladder again, with McCants sitting on top and holding a ball right at the rim. McCants crosses himself. Green takes the ball from Rashad’s hand at rim level, does a full windmill and dunks HARD with room to spare. Rashad looks shocked and awed. It gets a 45.
Dwight puts down some tape and dons a Superman tight t-shirt and cape. He’s a nut. Jameer Nelson is on the baseline with the ball … He throws it over the backboard, Dwight takes off from behind the dotted and doesn’t so much dunk as he throws the ball in the hoop from a couple of feet away. The crowd is going crazy. From my angle, behind Dwight, it looked like it was a legit.
Three e-mails I’ve received during the contest from Dime’s Editorial Director, Pat Cassidy:
1. “Gerald clearly has put a ton of thought into tonight. He has nothing else to do.”
(Why do you think I picked him?)
2. “Dude, you can’t out a piece of tape down and then take off 3 feet inside it for your dunk.”
3. “So, so awesome by Dwight … Until you see he didn’t actually dunk.”
FINALS: Dwight vs. Green.
The plan is for Rashad McCants to toss it over the backboard from behind and Gerald to catch it off the bounce and go between the legs for a dunk. It takes McCants a minute to get the toss down, but the dunk is sick.
Dwight’s turn. He bounces, catches, punches the ball with his left hand off the glass in mid-air and dunks with his right. He was in the air for about a minute. Insanity. I guess the fans vote on these dunks instead of the judges giving scores. I liked Dwight’s better, honestly.
Gerald pulls his shorts up, TAKES HIS SHOES OFF and goes with a between the legs dunk. The crowd wasn’t that impressed. I’m wondering why G-Money went with the green socks. A shout-out to the Celtics? (I find out later that the socks are actually Celtics’ socks.)
Final dunk for Dwight, who I think has this in the bag. Jameer climbs the ladder and puts a baby-sized hoop on the corner of the backboard, then places the (real-sized) ball on the little rim. He misses a windmill, then makes the second. On the first miss, some streamers shot out of the opposite-end backboard. I gotta say, that was a little anti-climactic in the finals.
The judges make their picks: Dawkins talks forever (I understood like 18% of what he said) before picking Dwight. ‘Nique goes with Dwight. Malone goes for Dwight. The Good Doctor informs us that dunking with no shoes on his very hard (he’s talking forever, too) before picking Dwight. Magic picks Dwight, too. Gerald is probably pissed that everyone’s talking about how creative Dwight was: “I brought out a F’N CUPCAKE!”
Apparently there’s one more dunk after all of this?
OK, the texting idea was cute, but it’s seriously sucked the life out of the building. The MC keeps saying there’s one more dunk but everyone else is leaving, so I have no idea what’s going on.
So it turns out Dwight got 78% of the fan vote and he’s officially the winner. That was kinda pointless since everyone knew he’d already won.
Related posts:
February 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
James Martin says:
Did you see Bill Laimbeer tonight, he was rocking some Converse React! Unless they are retro’s coming out I haven’t seen yet. Here is a link to the pic.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/photo?slug=f8b0732f9d2412cab13eb08521cd8d3e-getty-79624288bc100_sat_ports&prov=getty
February 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Gnasche says:
Thanks for the updates. I’m stuck at work trying to watch on TNT’s website while I’m taking phone calls. TNT’s online coverage is a little weak. You can choose between 4 cameras or a mosiac of all of them (which is pretty small and hard to see). If you choose one then you have to worry about them switching to an outside blimp shot in the middle of the action. That leaves you searching for a camera that is actually showing what is going on. The commentary is sparse and the only active mics are the commentators and the crowd mic. It’s impossible to hear any interviews.
Again, thanks for the updates because I’m missing a lot of the action.
When Kapono becomes a free agent, everyone is going to want him. Just have him stand in the corner and wait for the kick-out.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
M.Balla says:
C’mon!!!! D-Ho didn’t dunk on the Supaman one!!! Most overrated winner EVER
February 16th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Craig says:
as much as i loved the superman dunk…he should of done it over…gay and gerald had to redo their missed dunks right?
but everyone in the building just loved the presentation, and how could you not? howard jersey sales are gonna go through the effin roof
February 16th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
sirak says:
ok - i gotta lotta ove for d.howard - but shouldn’t he have had to re-do the superman dunk? i mean he didn’t dunk it, so is that not a missed dunk???
February 17th, 2008 at 12:03 am
RB says:
D12 won that hands down. STOP HATIN’. Dr. J - wrap it up. O-Town STAND UP!!!!!!!!
February 17th, 2008 at 12:11 am
JJ says:
Kenny said the superman dunk was in the top 3 dunks of all time? Uh, in order to be in the top 3 dunks of all time it has to be a dunk. Best dunk of the night was the birthday cake. No shoes was sick too - only Dr. J understood that one. But I woulda voted Dwight too; he just let everyone have fun.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:23 am
yuri says:
don’t hate. dwight is so so sick. i would like to kiss his chicken.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:36 am
bxballer says:
Yeah the birthday cake dunk was sick and original.
February 17th, 2008 at 12:56 am
djKianoosh says:
dang what was up with my man dr. j? he kept on and on and on about nothin.. did TNT tell him to keep talking to fill up the 4 minutes of voting time? man that was hard to watch
February 17th, 2008 at 12:57 am
correction says:
it was lowry not conley
February 17th, 2008 at 1:32 am
maddskizzle says:
jamario’s dunk was sweet if not for the stupid tape
lefty off the bounce free throw line dunk?!!
hope he learned his lesson and comes back strong next year a la dwight howard
February 17th, 2008 at 1:32 am
heavy d says:
Observations:
Becky Hammon and Swin Cash are both quite cute. Not enough to get me to watch the WNBA, but not bad just the same.
The Cupcake dunk was disadvantage by the angle the judges were at. Seeing it on slo-mo and realizing that he really blew out the candle before dunking was impressive.
No problem with Dwight winning, he was robbed last year on the sticker dunk.
I love your suggestion about 7 foot bench warriors competing in the skills course. I’d pay to see that train wreck, but I think it would have to be 1 round and done and they’d have to up to time limit to 4 minutes to have a winner.
My suggestion if they do fan voting for the dunk champion again that they fill the five minutes with replays and slo-mos with on screen text about how to vote for the candidate you are watching at the time. Maybe even some split-screen action. And they should throw in a little background music. I know they can edit it that quickly and it would be far more watchable than the judges waxing philosophic when their vote doesn’t actually matter.
February 17th, 2008 at 1:43 am
LongDong says:
The dunk contest is all about theatrics now and Dwight put on the best show. Even though it wasn’t “slam” dunk he still deserved it. Hopefully we’ll get to see him and G-Money again next year…Minus the text vote.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:14 am
nick says:
moon got screwed over by g-money. i think they should have at least tied with a score of 91. would have brought a bit more excitment to the first round of dunks. dwight came with the thunder tonight. mos def deserved to win.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Willis says:
So what if Dwight didn’t dunk it on the superman one. DID YOU SEE HOW HIGH HE WAS? You have to be a cartoon to jump that high. He jumped so high, he through the ball down through the hoop without dunking it. Thats crazy. And his double oop to himself was something i’ve never seen before. You know you win a dunk contest when they have to add your dunk to a videogame next year. Wow.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:13 am
JJ says:
Green got higher on the birthday cake dunk than howard on his superman
February 17th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Bobby B says:
Fuck the NBA! They had 1 full hour for the dunk contest…how much fucking time did they waste?! 1 hour and we got to see 12 dunks! With all that time, they should have had everybody advance to the final round. Lowest cumulative score in the 1st round, goes 1st in the final round, and so on.
Am I the only one that thinks that Moon and Gay had some sick dunks reserved for the final round? Too bad Moon got shafted by the judges and Green. Green’s 2nd dunk in the 1st round was fucking weak! Yes, his head was at the rim, but otherwise it was a routine windmill. Dominique could do that shit on the regular in games.
P.S. Howard had the sickest LAYUP in the history of the DUNK contest.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:40 am
mrcanadian says:
bobby b speaks the truth. that was a great lay up, no doubt about it. but he didn’t dunk it. i can’t remember ever a time where a person didnt touch the rim and didn’t dunk it, but they call it a dunk. then you might as well say chicks in the wnba can dunk. he jumped high, yes i know. he wore a superman t shirt yes i know. but he his hand didn’t even touch the rim.
there was this one time, where i did a 380 windmill reverse layup, and it was sick, hell yeah it was sick. but i didn’t touch the rim. and you know what, i wasn’t in the dunkoff, because it wasn’t a dunk, it was a layup.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:59 am
knowledge says:
you fools hatin on dwight’s superman “layup” are idiots. you clowns realize how high you gotta be from the free throw line, on two foot leave, to throw the rock, through the rim? You haters do the rest of us hoopheads a favor and don’t even watch the game, just spend the weekend spittin venom about how it was a “layup”
February 17th, 2008 at 4:42 am
FadeawayJ says:
Gotta say Jamario got the shaft. Not saying he should have won, but he definetly should have made the second round. I mean Green getting a pass from that ladder was all style and no substance. If you ask me, that’s easier than a bounce pass because all the guy has to do is drop the ball.
I know Jamario stepped over his line, but he still almost dunked from the foul line (only a little further from where MJ & Dr. J where, and right about where Vince was). He did that and caught a bounce pass! Okay not a 50, but still better than Green’s weak dunk.
Oh and without his shoes and with those green socks, G-money looked a lot like Peter Pan flying through the air. How can Peter Pan compete with Superman!
February 17th, 2008 at 4:48 am
FadeawayJ says:
Oh and what D.ho did WAS sick. It was not a layup. That takes some serious elevation to get so high you can throw the ball like a overhand fastball through the net.
Shaq is going to have to get his tattoo removed because we gotta new SUPERMAN!! (Also, Shaq should apologize for that STEEL movie).
February 17th, 2008 at 4:50 am
FadeawayJ says:
Also, Lambeer didn’t look right without his faceshield. Barkley should have jumped him.
Okay, I’ll stop posting now.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Bobby B says:
knowledge, STFU! First of all, it wasn’t from the fucking FT line. Of course, somebody that thinks it was a dunk is probably too blind to have seen that it was well inside the FT line.
Do you realize that Howard is 6′11” with a 7′8” wingspan?! He didn’t have to jump all that high to throw it through the rim. You must have been mesmerized by the cape to be so easily impressed by the layup.
Also, I love how you call yourself a “hoophead.” Playing NBA Jam on your SNES doesn’t make you a “hoophead.” So, knowledge, do the rest of us true students of the game a favor: learn English (”two foot leave”?!?!) and just spend the rest of the weekend in your mom’s basement playing your SNES or PS2.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Bobby B says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7tIfIkEM0
FFW to the 1-minute mark. Howard’s layup here is more impressive than his Superman “dunk” in the contest.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:12 am
dead-dunker says:
Cupcakes, Capes & Socked Feet?
Fucking WEAK.
Looks like Rudy wasn’t the only GAY thing going on tonight.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:22 am
deeds says:
I gotta agree with those who said Moon got the shaft. His first two dunks were definately better than Green’s. If he didn’t put the tape down, and just came out with that free throw alleyoop (LEFT HANDED by the way) it easily was better than a standard windmill. Other than that, great contest…Dwight definately deserved to win. And who gives a crap if he threw the ball through the hoop. That’s almost more impressive to me the way he did it.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Big Aaron says:
Haha, Laimbeer’s shoes were awesome! I used to have a pair of them!
I’m just happy Dwight got it done this year after being screwed by the sympathy vote for Nate Robinson last year.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:41 am
YOUNGFED says:
You Guys are trippin’ the whole contest was lame other than Dwight. Even if he didn’t dunk it it was mor entertaining than anything anybody else did. He had the 2 best dunks of the night.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:22 am
barnabusb says:
Man, no respect for Dwight inventing a new dunk? HE PUNCHED IT OFF THE BACKBOARD TO HIMSELF IN MID-AIR AND DUNKED IT WITH THE OPPOSITE HAND. Yes, the Superman dunk was all style and no substance, but it was fun. I wish the judges had a brain (or at least wore in-ear microphones that would feed info to them) so that they could have conspired to give Moon and Green a tie so they’d have to do a dunk-off. The contest was a little too gimmicky for my liking (leave your shoes on, please) but it was entertaining.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Dblock says:
That Dwight “lay up” was great. I’m just trying to figure out when the Dunk Contest was not about dunking. I hate all these gimmick dunks and these so called half dunks. That Cake one was stupid.
I have to agree Moon got the shaft. He should have made it to the Second Round with Dwight. He had 2 crazy dunks for the finals. He had to change his 2nd dunk because he didn’t know he had to use a player…..
Here was his 2nd dunk (His plan was to use the dunk where he bounced it off the One Block, grabbed it and took it to the other side before dunking it backward.)
For the finals it was (he had a two-ball dunk with a 360-degree spin, a between the legs dunk and another from behind the basket ready to go.) & (Behind FT line Jump).
February 17th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Shawn says:
Dwight’s creativity was impressive! But he actually threw the ball thru the rim on the superman-dunk, so it wasn’t a real dunk
http://www.squidoo.com/DwightHoward
February 17th, 2008 at 7:42 am
BC says:
Kenny Smith should be fired based on his dunk contest commentary alone. None of Dwight’s dunks are in the top 5 of all time… especially the superman. The hitting it to himself off the backboard was the most impressive dunk that he did.
Magic Johnson is also useless as a dunk commentator. He must have forgotten Dee Brown because Mr. Reebok Pump had the most complete dunk contest ever. Dee pulled off 8-10 amazing dunks (not 4 like these chumps with the shortened format) including several that had never been done before… and he never lost the crowd.
Howard definitely brought the best combination of creativity and excitement, so you had to give it to him. I was fully expecting him to pull a Shawn Kemp / Larry Johnson special and miss every dunk in the finals to give it to Green who I agree shouldn’t have made it to the finals (despite the birthday cake).
Biggest question that I had: How could Jamario Moon have gotten his steps that far off? If he practiced more, he could have given Dwight a better challenge than Green.
Maybe instead of Gay asking for YouTube submissions to pick a dunk, he should have gotten someone to dunk for him? If you’re 6′8″-6′9″, you’ve got to come up with some crazier stuff to make it even look like a challenge. He reminded me of most of the losing dunk contestants from the 80’s and 90’s… dunks were just a bit too “normal”. Kenny Williams anyone? David Benoit? Blue Edwards?
I think that they need to change the format:
First Round - 3 dunks - best 2 scores count
Finals - 2 dunks - both scores count
(or go back to 8 contestants, and have 3 dunks / 3 dunks / 2 dunks)
They need to somehow have running totals during that 5 minute text/web voting period. Maybe that would add a bit of drama. Listening to 5 judges repeat the same comments is about as painful as watching the WNBA.
Kapono proved that the Raps need to run more plays that get him open 3-pointers. It seems that he shoots as many 2’s as 3’s in games, which is a waste of someone that is so ridiculously good at the 3.
February 17th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Lovin'_life says:
BC, He wasn’t going to do that dunk in till the finals.
This was the plan for his 2nd Dunk. - His plan was to use the dunk where he bounced it off the One Block, grabbed it and took it to the other side before dunking it backward. has he lined up to make the dunk, one of the officials ran out and informed him he had to use a partner on the second dunk.
Here’s his interview from last night.
“They never told us the teammate dunk had to be in the first round,” Moon said. “I was going to save that dunk for last so I would be good and warmed up. I probably would have had a little sweat by then.”
For the finals he said he had a two-ball dunk with a 360-degree spin, a between the legs dunk and another from behind the basket ready to go.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
big40 says:
do you people relize that when doc and mj even moon last nite jump from free throw or 2 steps in side of it for moon that the started at the other basket HOWARD from behind the dotted took three steps gathered and threw it in that was sick no questions ask… look at were the man started from.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:38 am
mrcanadian says:
Bring back kenny skywalker.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Nick Barnes says:
I thought Rudy’s second dunk was sick, but like Dime said, he made it look too easy. He still got like a 48, though.
Was Rudy’s thing that every dunk was a fan suggestion, or was there just one dunk that was from the fans? Was he saving that one in case he made the finals?
Rip Hamilton got screwed. Yeah, he stepped on the line, but I’ve seen guys do that in the 3-Pt contest and it never gets called. Oh well, no one was beating Kapono.
D-Wade choking in the Skills Challenge kinda sums of Miami’s season. I never seen someone dribble off their foot.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
D says:
this was the most creative dunk contest I’ve seen. I think Green just needed one more creative dunk (a la cupcake dunk) but it was still sick to see some life in the contest. But realistically Dwight took it to new levels. Come on, superman shirt and cape, and he THREW it in the hoop. That’s more authority than a dunk. That’s owning the rim. And to jump behind the backboard and reach around was ill too.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Shep says:
Seriously, why is anyone bothering to question whether the “Superman Dunk” was really a dunk. Its all about the theater, anyway, so it technicalities like that really don’t matter. He had a spectacular competition, and deserved to win. It was the most pure fun I can remember from the Dunk Contest in a long time.
People with sour grapes like calling for Kenny Smith to be fired need to get a life. Seriously.