The dunk contest still has legs, if the players approach it from a different angle. That's what Dwight did last year. If you are doing the same dunks as dozens of players have done before you, then you have to bring a different level of creativity to the mix. We weren't all talking about Dwight's dunk last year because it was from the free throw line. We talked about it because he unexpectedly tore of his jersey to reveal a superman logo and threw on the cape before flying through the air. Dwight was right, it would be hard to nearly impossible to top last year. But, if he had saved the 11/12 ft dunk and Superman theatrics to the end, and raised the goal even more (because he made it look way too easy), he would have won. He brings the goal out and raises it to a true 12 ft a more, goes into the phone both and comes out with a complete Superman costume, not just the cape, takes Nate's "kryptonite" ball and dunks the s**t out of it on the higher goal and hangs on the rim for a few moments, he probably would have brought the house down. Maybe for added effect, he could have asked Nate to stand in front so he could jump over him. You can't just rely on your athletic ability in the dunk contest anymore, you have to get a little more creative to get the crowd into it. And what I'd like to see is for them to get rid of that HORSE s**t, add more players to the PG skills competition, keep shooting stars and maybe add like an additional speed round to the dunk contest where each contestant has to perform a determined set of dunks in a certain time limit. They can do a regular dunk, off the backboard and alleyoop. Variations to those can earn them more points, but if not executed correctly they can lose points...and players have to go one right after the other, so player A does his regular dunk, followed by player B and so on, then they go to the "off the backbaord"...I think that would create a faster paced, more exciting "in game" feel). For the 3pt contest maybe they can create two brackets and bring in legends to compete with the current stars. I'd love to see Bull go out there and show 'em how it's done. And Kenny talks so much crap during the broadcast, he needs to get out there (and get embarrassed)
The judges obviously were told to put Dwight through...and the NBA most likely had the props fabricated at Dwight's and Nate's request. The players did have to get all props approved first, and you could see that the court was marked off where the additional goal was to be placed. But I highly doubt Dwight was performing to someone else's scipt
I know Dwight is crazy strong, I wonder if he could have dunked Nate into the basket. If he could, he would win for sure.
Lmao rudy was the real competition? His first dunk wasn't anything special. His 2nd dunk took 100 times, even after Pau stopped trrying to get fancy. Iggy already did that dunk and it was much better. I don't think him in the Finals would have been any better. At least with Nate and Dwight, there was showmanship. I don't think it was fixed. Everything has to be approved in advanced. Nate and Dwight knew that they had to win the crowd and that's what happenend. Coming up with dunks you never seen before is extremely difficult now. You got to find other ways to get creative.
im just saying, if rudy's dunks got what they deserved then we would've never seen nate go green in the second round. behind the back, off the glass, and one handed finish on the first try! shouldn't have scored as low as jr smiths boring windmill... speaking of boring windmills, nate's first dunk was the same thing as jr smith's dunk but he scored much higher even though we saw the exact same dunk just moments earlier. scoring = fixed for ratings. i still enjoyed the contest, but it's very fishy.
The thing is he didn't really jump over Dwight. He used his arm to help himself. A lot of people would do that.
Exactly, i mean how messed up is it that Nate gets much higher points for the exact same dunk right after JR did his dunk. Ok there was one difference JR let the ball bounce twice, and Nate let it bounce only once. Nate did much better than he did in previous years (he didn't miss as much), but he shouldn't have won it. I mean his first dunk in the finals was the exact same dunk Francis did years ago. btw am I the only one who thinks the broadcast announcers were anoying? Who were there? Kenny Smith and who else?
This contest was crap. Dunkers have to stop thinking there actors and get back to there real job, dunking.
the kryptonie strategy was very effective. and dunking over superman sealed the deal, making superman like an idiot. but still, the first dunk of Rudy was still better than superman's first attempt.
Rudy's 1st dunk was nothing special. We've seen it before. Its like when someone did the kenny smith through-the-legs-off-the-backboard dunk 2 or 3 years ago, it was nothing special. If someone comes out in 5 years and throws a ball into the basket while calling himself superman, no one will freak out and go crazy. Rudy's second dunk was just terrible planning. Rudy's plan of doing all spainards just screwed him over. He got pau freaking gasol to try and throw a behind the back pass off the backboard and dunk it single handed. Even if he got it in the 1st 3 tries, again, we've already seen it before, and done better, Andre Igoudala did it right here in Houston, when got robbed by Nate Robinson. Dwight's 1st dunk sure as heck didn't deserve a 50. He did NOT have a perfect first round. The only deserving 100 that should ever be handed out was VC back in the day. You mean to tell me that dwights dunks were as spectacular as vince's? no sir. I don't know if the whole thing was rigged, but even if it wasn't, Rudy didn't fare too well. I think JR should have gotten a lot better score. The judges were a joke. Last night overall was the worst I can remember in memory. The 3 point contest was terrible, dunk contest sucked, horse (or geico) was lame, it turned into a jump shooting contest. Some ball boy got in the way in the skills challenge during the damn BOUNCE pass (I couldn't believe that actually happened), and I got waaay too much cheryl miller last night. I really really dislike her. Go cover the WNBA, top trying to be one of the guys. Either that, or just stick to being a sideline reporter. The main thing that stuck out to me last night- lots of former and current players seemed to just get annoyed by regular people. Reggie Miller was continually ripping the kid for getting in the way of Mo Williams, and Cheryl Miller yelled at like a 7 year old to give her the envelope. Accidents happen, and try being a little nicer to people. The only reason the NBA is relevant is because of the fans, so you should suck up a little more to people at least for one weekend. After seeing all that mess, it only made me think of how mean these people probably are behind the scenes.
I thought JR dunk was more difficult since he let it bounce twice. It is harder to time like that. The annoying announcers were Kenny and Reggie. Kenny didn't annoy me but Reggie was the annoying one. He is always over excited. Nobody complained about Kenny when Charles was there, now that Charles was gone and Reggie replaced him everyone is complaining about the announcers.
Reggie was annoying like a grade school kid. "I called it, I called it!" when Nate was announced a winner. Dang, he called Kapono or Granger, he called Harris.... what the heck.
Slam Dunk Contest participants should NOT attempt anything that is NOT legal in the court during a regular game. If you can do it during the game, you can do it in the contest.
My take We're talking about the contest now but lets think of the dunk contest 25 years from now...Dunk creativity already dried up 5 years ago. They're not gonna have anything left. How we see it now is how its gonna be, probably with even more over the top showmanship. I actually think it might get too dangerous having NBA players being almost stuntmen instead of dunkers. They might even scrap the whole thing altogether way later on. Or it'll turn into a bunch of NON SKILLS entertainment like dance contests & all kinda crap, getting celebrities more involved. Weird thing is nobody complains much about high school & college dunk contests where its been the same stuff since '87 Yeah. Everyone's a critic & joker now. Are we trying to actually ENJOY these things anymore? Or be the wisest ass BUT, Rudy Fernandez should not have assumed we know who the heck that is. Thats mostly on him , he shoulda let the broadcasters know beforehand
Nate used HOward as a prop. Dwight should have used Nate as a prop to. Dwight should have forced Nate to piggy back Dwight while he did a dunk! I would have voted for Dwight if he did that!! He should have saved the 12ft dunk for the last one though.
I hate how everybody thinks Howards dunks are so awesome. the dude is 6'11" , those dunks are not that difficult for a dude that tall who has that kind of vertical. there should be a unwritten hieght limit on the dunk contest of like 6'9".
Eh, I wouldn't go that far. Most dunk contests have players tossing the ball for a bounce or running with the ball in their hands. I think dribbling would really diminish the dunks.
A human that tall should not be jumping like that. A human that short should not be jumping like that. They're both athletic freaks.
