The Slam Dunk contest mostly turned out to be a snooze fest of sorts.
Saturday night actually kicked off with a promising reverse dunk off the side of the backboard from former champion Gerald Green, but took a dive from there, as the contestants repeatedly failed to convert their attempts on the first couple of tries. Green was surprisingly the biggest culprit, as the high-flyer ultimately failed to covert his double-dunk attempt in the allowed time.
Even when the dunks were converted, it wasn’t anything we haven’t already seen, for the most part. Lets take a look at some of the highlights:
Gerald Green’s reverse dunk off the side of the backboard:
James White’s dunk from the line:
Eric Bledsoe’s reverse dunk:
Terrence Ross’ behind-the-back dunk:
Kenneth Faried’s between-the-legs dunk:
Jeremy Evans’ floating dunk:
Jeremy Evans’ jump-over-painting dunk:
Charles Barkley, who referred to James White as “Gerald White” on more than one occasion, didn’t enjoy the competition and asked the age-old question: when will the NBA bring in more superstars to dunk?
And he has a point. Bringing in the stars of today such as LeBron James or even Kevin Durant would certainly draw more attention and intrigue to the event, even if they don’t convert the most amazing dunks of all-time. Given the fact that just about every dunk imaginable has already been converted, it’s more about what the stars of today can do at this point. It is “All-Star” weekend, after all.
Barkley wasn’t the only one to share his thoughts on the matter, as many around the league – including John Wall, DeAndre Jordan and J.R. Smith – chimed in about the dunk contest in the following pages:
Every one of these guys is a MUCH better dunker than they seemed in the contest. The issue was that all of them had bad nerves. Why? Because the dunk contest is the most exposure any of them have ever had. Put in a megastar – LeBron, Durant, Rose, etc – and the dunks may not be as athletic, but they won’t lose the ball fifteen times on one attempt. That’s the reason the dunk contests with Dr J, ‘Nique, Jordan, etc seemed so good even if the dunks are a little tame by today’s standards. Those guys were too tough to flake.
I hear the type of ball they used (for advertising purposes) was difficult to grip. That might explain why these guys had so much trouble converting, which sucks. Gerald Green has done this plenty of times before, so it’s hard to believe his nerve got the better of him.
If superstars had been in it, and they had done the exact same dunks, everyone would be falling all over themselves how it was Top 5 All-Time Contest!
Perhaps. That’s the advantage of being an excellent player.