Then, why weren't LeBron, Francis, Carter, Kobe and T-mac there on Saturday night? Free sneakers showcase, right?
No incentive to the player. The shoe company gets a benefit out of having the sneakers shown, the NBA gets a benefit out of the best players dunking, but the players themselves? They got their endorsement money already. Why put themselves out when they don't have to, work on dunk routines, give up vacation time, and risk getting shown up by a rookie like Smith? That's why they need another incentive.
I've said this a number of times (Although this was actually David Aldridge's idea), all the big time sneaker companies and TNT need to gather together and put up a huge pot for the winner of the slam dunk competition. If they can combine for something like a $5 million winner take all prize, you would have everybody lining up to get in. That would be approx 1/3 to 1/4 of the yearly salary of even a Max Level guy. Once you get all the big names, then TNT will get some huge ratings, and the sneaker companies would get a bunch of pub. And with such a big prize on the line, you'll get much more of a competition between the contestants. This would be a win-win for everybody involved. Oh and I think they should probably revamp the voting process too. Instead of a point scale, the judges should probably just rank the competitors after they've seen all the dunks in the round.
$5 million! I think they said on SportsCenter today that Shaq said he'd compete if there were $100,000 up for grabs. $100k for first, $75k for second, and $50k for third is the way they described his quote. Heck, if that's all it takes, then $1M from shoe companies and everyone else would make it the most competitive slam showcase ever. Why not just have a "slam dunk open" around the country for street ballers and local people to show their stuff and have two guys get into the tourney? All of this won't happen because no one wants to get shown up, though.
