ASW 2010 Dunk Contest Thread

[Andrew]

Article

The final contestant in the slam dunk competition will have to earn his way in.

The NBA announced Wednesday the creation of the “All-Star Slam Dunk-In” to determine the fourth contestant in the event.

Two players will compete at halftime of the rookie challenge on Friday, Feb. 12. The winner, chosen by votes on NBA.com or through text messaging, will claim a spot in the marquee event of All-Star Saturday night, to be held this year in Dallas.

Too many gimmicks. I say let anyone interested throw their hat in the ring, invite four (I'd prefer 6-8 and no Shooting Stars contest but that doesn't look like it's being dropped anytime soon) and let them compete in two rounds with three dunks per round. No fan voting, the two players with the highest combined scores in the first round advance and highest combined score in the finals wins the whole thing. Keep the "two minutes to complete a dunk with two replacements" rule in place, take out the "must use a teammate" stipulation.

[Dee.]

I'm pretty confused.
4 spots?
Someone tells me TFB will be something like a half time show.

[Patr1ck]

Yeah what happened to TFB vs NBA?

[JaoSming]

no idea, when you click the ads that used to take you to that thing now it just says see the competitors on the 18th

I like this because that means we get 1 more dunker....but still, I pretty much agree with everything andrew said in his post on how the dunk contest needs to improve

[Andrew]

Yeah what happened to TFB vs NBA?

I think we either misinterpreted the original announcement or they realised how badly the NBA guys could get shown up.

[benji]

Is what you were thinking of http://dimemag.com/2009/08/the-2010-nba ... teresting/ ?

Dime did a misreading of something that was announced months earlier. The tour would have its own dunk contest at All-Star Weekend, and those guys would just get to attend and view the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday.

[Dee.]

(unfortunately James White still floats around in the NBA/D-League so he didn’t submit himself as an amateur)
DAMN.

[Andrew]

Is what you were thinking of http://dimemag.com/2009/08/the-2010-nba ... teresting/ ?

Dime did a misreading of something that was announced months earlier. The tour would have its own dunk contest at All-Star Weekend, and those guys would just get to attend and view the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday.

I believe that would be it. Seems like it's our misunderstanding...or Dime's misinformation, whichever way you want to look at it.

[JaoSming]

yea I was wondering why TFB was running their annual "Put Guy Dupey where he belongs; in in the NBA Dunk Contest"

[Abctest123]

The two guys competing will be Demar Derozan and Eric Gordon.

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/01/12/alls ... ef:nbahpt1

[JaoSming]

not terrible choices....but looks like we arent getting any "superstars" in the contest this year

[Modifly]

Derozan is OK, but Gordon? I haven't seen him dunk before. Is he any good?

[JaoSming]

oh yea, he can jam it well

[Andrew]

I'm a little disappointed that LeBron pulled out. I'm no hater when it comes to LeBron, far from it, and I like watching him play, but I don't much care for the way he grabbed the spotlight during last year's contest and declared that he'd enter the 2010 contest, only to once again um and ah and ultimately pull out. Beyond that, I'm interested to know if he could've combined his athleticism with enough creativity to have shown us something special.

[Fresh8]

Beyond that, I'm interested to know if he could've combined his athleticism with enough creativity to have shown us something special.

Maybe that's what he was worried about?

Can't remember if he's actually said it before.

[Andrew]

Possibly and fair enough, he shouldn't have to compete if he doesn't want to. But if that's the case, don't make a big, spotlight stealing fuss about throwing your hat into the ring during the previous contest.

[Fresh8]

Possibly and fair enough, he shouldn't have to compete if he doesn't want to. But if that's the case, don't make a big, spotlight stealing fuss about throwing your hat into the ring during the previous contest.

He likes the attention like most other sports stars or any other person for that matter. But I agree with you that he shouldn't have put his hand up and then say he doesn't want to partake anymore.

[Modifly]

Beyond that, I'm interested to know if he could've combined his athleticism with enough creativity to have shown us something special.

Maybe that's what he was worried about?

Can't remember if he's actually said it before.

That's what I was thinking about too when LeBron first said that he'll participate in the dunk contest. After all, his in-game dunks doesn't have a lot of variety. You often see the same dunk over and over again on his breakaway dunks. It's the power of the dunk and the elevation that makes his dunks look special.

[Andrew]

Perhaps this video is a good example.

phpBB [video]

It certainly does make you wonder if he could've unveiled something out of the ordinary after all, but I guess we'll probably never know.

[Lamrock]

So why do these guys have to participate in the dunk-off, and not the other 3 guys? Are they more "deserving" or am I missing something?

[benji]

Well, one of them, their dunks will only count as 0.8 of a dunk. And there must also be a Clipper penalty.

[Andrew]

So why do these guys have to participate in the dunk-off, and not the other 3 guys? Are they more "deserving" or am I missing something?

Just another unnecessary gimmick. They could let them both compete and pick a sixth competitor, but then they'd have to drop Shooting Stars and you know how much excitement that's generated over the years.

[Patr1ck]

So who are the other 3 contestants?

[Andrew]

Suppose we'll be finding out soon enough. It'd be weird to announce the contenders for the fourth spot and keep the other three participants a mystery.

[Modifly]

Is Nate Robinson automatically invited to defend his title? I hope we dont see Rudy Gay again this year. In my opinion his in-game dunks are nice but his dunks in the previous contest weren't that fascinating.