For the last three years, we at least had Dwight Howard in the contest (who easily shattered the notion that big men cannot hang in a dunk contest). And I'd argue that the last two years of the contest have been more memorable just BECAUSE Dwight Howard was in it (whether or not he won it is irrelevant, in my opinion). This year, no Dwight. LeBron James teased us for literally a full year when he said he was going to be in the contest. Mind you, LeBron has done that windmill power dunk for his entire career, but this is easily the most popular player in the league. His inclusion would have made the contest worth watching; in fact, I'd be willing to say that it would be the most viewed contest of all time. The field gets announced... and no LeBron. Either Andre Igoudala or Josh Smith, both borderline All Stars and prior dunk contest participants (Smith won in 2005 and Igoudala probably should have won in 2006), are at least recognizable to the casual basketball fan. Neither are participating.
Both Robinson and Brown play in huge markets and can dunk, but don't play nearly enough for the hype machine to get rolling on this thing. Nate plays 23 minutes a night - this includes his banishment to the bench for a stretch of 14 games. Brown averages 18 minutes a contest. Wallace is easily having the best season of his NBA career, but unless you follow basketball closely you might not know what team he plays for (Charlotte
What's crazy though is that I can remember contests from over ten years ago. Mike won back to back in 1987 and 1988. Look at the cast he beat: Dominique Wilkins, Gerald Wilkins, Clyde Drexler, Jerome Kersey (and this was "young, lemme rip the rim off the basket" Jerome), and Terence Stansbury were ALL highlight reel worthy dunkers in their day. Not only do I remember MJ's dunks, but I remember what he had to beat too. They were great contests that people still talk about. Kobe won in 1997 - and it was memorable. Here we have a brash high-schooler participating in the contest, and he was pulling off dunks with ease that other cats were using to WIN contest as recently as two seasons prior. Vince Carter won in 2000 - and I am convinced that half of the other contestants (Tracy McGrady and Steve Francis) might have won the contest in other years had they participated. Their only hurdle in 2000 was Vince Carter. Some hurdle considering he put the contest into another stratosphere (and might have raised the bar waaay too high in the process!) - and I'm not shocked that they didn't participate again. Why? They couldn't do any of the dunks that Vince had done. I can think of other guys who won (Jason Richardson and Desmond Mason had some serious dunks), but when they did those dunks and versus whom? That's hazy. I vividly remember 1987 and 1998. I vividly remember 1997. I vividly remember 2000. And, I remember Dwight Howard from the last 3 years.
The league is trying though. A dunkoff at halftime of the Rookie/Sophomore game between Eric Gordon of the Clippers and DeMar Derozan of the Raptors is a new idea (and WAY better than having players spin a wheel to determine what dunk they're supposed to do). But exactly how many dunks will these guys be able to come up with? Are they going to recycle dunks for the real contest? Why not have all five in the real thing from the jump if you are asking them to dunk in the first place?
I'm not looking for an entire revamp of the competition. Dunks are still the exclamation point of any basketball game. But with guys people don't know, and the guys we do know sitting on the sideline, the contest lacks that exclamation point. Period.
No comments:
Post a Comment