Three words: <B>Burn the Wheel.</B> Marketing heads should roll. Whatever stiff Director they hired from the world of Ronald McDonald gimmicks and promotions should be packing his stuff in a box right now. "Hey, I got an idea... we'll <I>tell</I> the guys what old, tired dunk they have to regurgitate." Brilliant idea. This ranks up there with the Edsel, New Coke, DIVX and Enron. The <I>wheel</I>. Unreal. Worst episode ever.
I wasn't too happy with the outcome myself. The wheel kills the Slam Dunk Contest. If a guy misses one of his first two dunks then he can really get screwed by the wheel... It didn't even look like Steve and Cuttino practiced for that one dunk...
I know. It's so dead. They REALLY need to bring in the top dogs, or just forget it. Back to 6: Vince Kobe Francis McGrady Richardson Bender With those players, you don't even NEED a good concept. Just let them make it up.
The contest as a whole was terrible, but that last Richardson dunk was absolutely amazing. One of the better ones I can remember seeing in a long while. The wheel does need to go, though.
What a piece of sh_t that contest was. Did it occur to them that some guys will get lucky and have easier dunks? Or perhaps that Francis, all 6 ft 3 of him had to do probably the toughest dunk? The dunk contest got more and more lame because no new dunks were made. Bringing back the old dunks, that no one can do right now just shows tha fans the dunkers aren't as good as they used to be. The wheel might be the thing that kills this contest permanently. It wouldn't surprise me if they ditched the contest after this year. The whole program was lame. That stupid 3-on-3 sucked completely and was basically dedicated to bashing Kenny Smith.
You guys probably didnt get that last dunk stevie did. The Last Dunk was a message to Stern and the rest of the league, all he was saying was GO TO HELL, Im never going to this peice of **** anymore. You can tell by the way he was talking, he is done with this Event. BTW .. Did you see him run into the locker room after the richardson dunk? Did he have to pee?
I'm not saying that "blame" is exactly the right word, but I hinestly think that the dunk contest is going to continue to suck unti Carter decides to do it again. He raised the bar, and now he's ducking it...Oh, I know this year he's hurt, and I also understand why he doesn't want to...Doesn't want to be labelled as just a dunker this early on...But when the guy we all know is the best dunker in the league isn't there, it kind of deflates the whole thing. So what I want to know is, is there any way the NBA can bring sufficient pressure to bear on Carter, when healthy, to participate? And Bryant too, while they're at it, although I doublt Bryant woulg go if Carter was...Anyways, what do you all think? And yes, I know that you can't "force" him to, but what if a condition of playing in the AS Game was that you had to accept an invitation to one of the skills competition if it were proffered? Any thoughts?
The wheel was stupid as hell, but Richardson clearly was the best dunker tonight. Dude has more hops than I expected. I thought Francis would run away, but I think Richardson would have beat him in a straight-up challenge. Just my opinion.
The dunk contest format was horrible. If it stays in that format, it should be done away with. Well, all in all, Houston really represented tonight didn't they.
I've got to go against the grain here and say that I liked the wheel idea. The wheel allows for some of the old dunks to be represented. You have to be able to do dunks that you haven't practiced as well. There is also the opportunity to show your creativity in comparison to the great dunkers of the past. If Steve had made his first dunk it would not have mattered that he couldn't do the statue of liberty. BTW, the statue of liberty dunk was not the hardest one available. There is no way he could have dunked from the free throw line either. Could Steve rock the cradle? Could he do the hocus pocus? Steve's best hope was to get a Spud Webb dunk. What they should do is expand the contest back to six, allow two freelance dunks in addition to the buddy and the wheel, and get rid of the stupid matchups.
Francis3 He ran out as a gesture basically saying the dunk was really good and the competition was over before the scores were even posted. I'm sure he didn't actually leave.
I didn't like the wheel. You take a bunch of classic dunks that no one has a chance at doing, and that are virtually impossible given the talents of the players(except for Nique and Richardson, but that was it) in the competition, and you tell them to go out there and see what happens. brilliance. I wish I could get a job at the NBA, doesn't seem that the criteria for working there is too high.
So far, This All-Star weekend looks like it got a hold to someone from MTV or TRL! Whats with all the lame groups playing during breaks and come on "The Will", they have to be trying to get higher ratings by expanding trying to reach the TRL crowd!?!
Yea the wheel was a horrible idea. Like Barkely was saying, it is physically impossible to do some of those dunks b/c the guys just cannot palm the ball like MJ or Dr. J. I feel Richardson could have brought a lot more to the table also, because he really is a fantastic dunker, but he can't jump off 1 leg. By forcing him to jump off 1 leg, you take away 1 potentially great dunk that he could have had going off of 2 legs. The ideal slam dunk contest for me - Carter: you HAVE to have him here. Barring any injury, the NBA should force him to be in the slam dunk. Kobe: great dunker, but the main thing he brings is the HYPE. Richardson: just a pure outstanding dunker... let him come up with his own stuff and no1 will be disappointed. He's 1 of the few players that actually does some of these dunks in the games also. James White : I remember back when Hoopstv.com was still around, they have quite a few features on him; also saw him in the national high school dunk contest and he was great - took off from the free throw line and still had plenty of room to go when he dunked it. This guy is the 1 that's supposed to give Vince some major trouble and I think he will when he makes it to the NBA. 2 other players - Francis, Davis, Mason, Wallace, Swift, whoever... Also I prefer the old format as opposed to the lil "matchup" thing they had goin on 2nite
I got to go with Hydra. They need the wheel with 2 more dunks . Make it a total of 6 Dunks. I personally think they need to get rid of the match ups, and drop 2 each round until the finals. That 3 player thing was crap, need to go back to the 2 on 2, male and female! They played liked the Rox season, couldn't buy a bucket with a 1milllion dollars. Who picked Jamie Foxx? Should have ask anybody but him. Why Moses didn't play for the Rox? I will always be a Rocket Fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel kind of sorry for Wallace. The score that he got for that dunk when he faked the one-hund dunk and then went under the rim and did the two hand backwards reverse was very impressive. I didn't think he was going to be close to getting that one. There was obviously some bad judging going on.
