Dime Exclusive: Josh McRoberts Channels His Inner Billy Hoyle

When the NBA announced its preliminary selections for this year’s All-Star Dunk Contest (Blake Griffin, JaVale McGee, Serge Ibaka and Brandon Jennings), it seemed not everyone in the League was feeling its decision. Enter Billy Hoyle. I mean Josh McRoberts. I mean Josh McRoberts as Billy Hoyle and his Indiana Pacers teammate Brandon Rush as Sidney Deane from White Men Can’t Jump. Got it? Good.

Because McRoberts – who if we recall can jump out the gym – wants his own say in this year’s competition. So he, Rush and a high council of creative hoop heads have developed their own grassroots campaign to get him selected. The result of this collaboration is an extremely dope film depiction of one of the hardest hitting basketball flicks of all-time.

They rock the same gold chains, the same tie-dye snapbacks and the same schoolyard swagger that Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes made famous in WMCJ almost 20 years ago – the original hit theaters in 1992. The only thing really missing is Woody and Wes. And since we don’t see Snipes finding any time in the near future to meet with the young guns, it’s your move now Woody.

To tease the video release, McRoberts and Co. wanted to hype up the noise and show their original movie poster for the short film – which is set to drop exclusively at DimeMag.com soon, so stay tuned in the coming days.

But don’t worry; McRoberts has his credentials very much in order to merit a selection in the Contest. The 6-10 power forward was the 2005 McDonald’s All-America Player of the Year and finished second in the game’s dunk contest behind former NBA Dunk Contest champion Gerald Green (’07). And during his young NBA career thus far, he’s already destroyed more than a few defenders – I’m still unsure if DeJuan Blair has ever recovered from his McRoberts’ facial.

At the end of the day, McRoberts is creative, energetic and genuinely stoked about trying to get into the Dunk Contest. These are the types of things that make All-Star Saturday Night so fun. Why not give McRoberts the chance to bam a few dunks against Griffin, Ibaka and McGee in an all-big-man-only contest? The L.A. Lakers’ own 2009 grassroots campaign for Shannon Brown, LetShannonDunk.com, got the 6-4 guard into last season’s contest. What’s saying McRoberts shouldn’t have his shot this year?

With that said, make sure to stayed glued to DimeMag.com for Josh and Brandon’s exclusive new video, dropping soon! We goin’ Sizzler, we goin’ Sizzler.

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