Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  84 responses

The Latest Terrible Dunk Contest Gimmick

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Over the years, as the game’s biggest stars shied away from competing in what was once arguably All-Star Weekend’s signature event, the NBA has felt the pressure to constantly re-invent the Dunk Contest.

Unfortunately, most of the time they have failed miserably.

The latest idea isn’t any better than the previous ones. For some inexplicable reason, an impromptu dunk-off will be held the night prior to the (real) Dunk Contest, with fans voting to determine who will have the honor of competing on Saturday night. Oy.

Here’s the official explanation, via NBA.com:

This one-round slam dunk-in competition will be held during halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on Friday, Feb. 12, and fans will determine the winner by voting via SMS text message and at NBA.com.

The participants will have two dunks each, with a two-minute time limit to complete each dunk. The player with a higher percentage of overall votes will advance to participate in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest on All-Star Saturday Night. The other three contestants in the Sprite Slam Dunk will be announced on Monday, Jan. 18.

For what it’s worth, TNT is going to announce the participants in this “Dunk-In” tonight prior to its weekly double-header broadcast.

What would have been a lot more exciting (and probably drawn more viewers) is if the NBA allowed amateur dunkers to take part in the aerial exhibition, and had fans vote in someone on the Friday night prior to the main event.

But I guess that would make far too much sense.

  • Add a Comment
  • Share
  • RSS

Tags: ,

← Older Comments
  • http://slamonline.com dmonz

    2010 Dunk Contest Cast:
    Lebron James (please!)
    AI2
    LetShannonDunk

    The Hopefull:
    Corey Brewer!

    Guest Starring:
    Air Up There

  • http://www.slamonline.com melvin ely

    You know how they can get great dunkers to join (I think Shaq came up with this dunno)? Make the grand prize a tricked out Maybach or Escalade. They can even get those guys at WestCoast Customs pimp it for publicity. THEN watch as all the superstars sign up

  • Marvin

    This game is supposed to entertain the fans, this is just pissing me off. They know who we want to watch competing; Lebron, Shannon Brown. Give us to them.

  • WOODY

    I understand that Howard has said that neither he nor Lebron will participate. Stan Van Sweaty remains in the competition, however.

  • http://slam ld5

    this is actually good u people just don’t respect the NBA enough its probablly the best league out there

  • rob

    It seems we got it wrong. The dunk off will be between two participants. These are DeRozan and Eric Gordon. The winner will advance to the main event on Saturday. I hope people support DeRozan.

  • http://jayemmbee.blogspot.com ClutchPerformer

    co-sign melvin
    but yeah bring back the 80s way when anyone could join, got like 10 guys slamming.

    amateaur i dont know about that, and 1 maybe, although a better idea is make the all-star game be nba vs and 1 like how it used to be NBA vs ABA

    Demar Derozan will murk Eric Gordan, like Barkely and Kenny said , I didnt even know he could dunk

  • Jer Boi

    eric gordon? wtf. derozan should win. better win.

  • http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

    This is even stupider than before. So these two guys have to come up with more dunks than anyone else. Great.

  • http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

    I really only want Lebron to compete if he’s going up against names. I don’t care about scrubs like DeRozan and Gordon (even though the former is a great dunker). I wanna see names like Josh Smith, AI, f it, even Dwyane Wade. Let’s actually have a dunk contest here.

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    If I see Nate Robinson in it again, heads are going to roll. His newest dunk is probably jumping over a midget in a chair with a cupcake.

  • Jon

    the only disgrace is eric gordon! why on earth is he up against derozan?

  • j4zzm4n

    seems being the half time entertainment at a rookie game is enough to get you into the dunk contest. disgraceful….

  • Mid Bear

    omg

  • http://slamonline.com Krishan

    Anton just gave me an idea: Dwight dunking a midget holding a basketball. Cool right? Anyone?

  • me

    what’s the point when the participants already showing their best dunks in the first contest to get a ticket to the second around, and are they supposed to do the same set of dunks again?

  • Prentice

    I think the Dunk in IS for amateurs? Like someone said, Sprite ran a contest in the summer to get these guys a chance to compete, it was on NBA.com and there were like 6 regional winners, including Air Up There, Guy Dupuy, etc..

  • Justin

    @Jukai…exactly what I was thinking. These guys have to now come up with something really good, but not spectacular because they don’t want to waste them for the next night. Crowd reaction is a factor on these dunks and if they pull out something huge the night before and then do it again the next night, the effect is ruined. Just a horrible idea. And yeah, I forgot about that whole wheel travesty. The look on Steve Francis’ face when he had to do that 360 Statue of Liberty dunk was pretty funny though

  • http://slamonline.com Dave

    If I see the East Bay Funk Dunk again I’m taking mofos out with a sniper rifle, amateur, pro or Yao Ming.

  • http://slamonline.com Dave

    Also, I’m not impressed by Guy Dupree or anyone else who can do Harold Miner sh*t, but higher. And I’ll say it again – until I see the Goats Double Dunk the Dunk Contest is not worth watching.

  • JoeMaMa

    I miss Terrence Stansbury.

  • Bushfiya

    Eric Gordon is facing off with DeMar DeRozan in the Dunk Off!! DeMar is gonna throw DOWN!

  • Bushfiya

    DEROZAN!

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » DeRozan and Gordon to ‘Dunk-In’

  • http://slam shawn williams

    why not winner take all? get sprite to sponsor it for a million dollars! and i would have the 2 highest vote getters pick teams live on friday night from the top 24 vote getters!

  • http://slam shawn williams

    quit this east vs west. have the captains pick their team like u do at the park or at the rec. make sure its live plus you would have something fresh to talk about all weekend.

  • BostonBaller

    Please stop w./ the LBJ dunk talk…If he enters it will be a miracle or the L is paying him royally to be in it. He is not a dunk contest dunker as far as creativity goes unless he has some stuff in the closet. I’d love to watch the Flight Brothers and the And 1 guys go at it with the best dunkers in the L.

  • Jordan

    Time for EJ to shine baby!

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » Dunk Contest Field Announced

  • Eyeshield21

    YOOO PUT MR 720 IN PLEAAASE

  • Art Vandelay

    Bron pulled out of the contest because Nike realized they can’t get the tape confiscated if he loses

  • TNT

    They should let the non-nba players in, I refuse to call them amateurs because they are not in the NBA…they are still professional athletes. I would love to see James White in a slam dunk contest…from the free throw line between the legs…he’s crazy.

  • gloryroad

    honestly I don’t think getting amateur dunkers in the contest would help anyone. it’s pretty obvious guys like mr.720 can pull off much better dunks than anybody competing in the dunk contest. But I doubt the fans really wanna see amateurs at the dunk contest. I personally just want to see nba dunkers compete because I enjoy watching shannon brown or gerald wallace pull off dunks in games and want to know what else they can do. To find out what guy dupuy can do all you need to do is go to youtube. No disrespect to the “amateur” dunkers. a lot of those guys have perfected the art of dunking and are far better dunkers and more creative than nba players. But I just don’t think it would add much excitement. In the end the judges would probarbly just cheat to make an nba guy win.

  • Pingback: Premier Productions Inc. » Grading the 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend

← Older Comments
Advertisement