Thursday, February 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am  |  95 responses

2012 NBA Dunk Contest: Shumpert, Budinger, George, Williams


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Once considered the showcase event of All-Star Weekend, the NBA Dunk Contest has lost much of its luster over the years.

The League’s biggest stars don’t want to participate – they usually only take part in it before they truly become superstars – and fans are often disappointed by the selected competitors.

But, it’s all not all bad news this year. Jeremy Lin is here to save the day! Well, sort of.

Lin has been tabbed to “assist” teammate Iman Shumpert in the dunking exhibition:

Sources with knowledge of the league’s plans told ESPN.com that Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert — one of four dunk-contest entrants alongside Houston Rockets forward Chase Budinger, Indiana Pacers swingman Paul George and Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams — will be enlisting Lin to “assist” him in a manner similar to the help 2011 champion Blake Griffin got from then-Los Angeles Clippers teammate Baron Davis [...] The New York Daily News reported Wednesday that the NBA is expected to make Lin part of the field for the Haier Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Saturday night, which would enable him to join Shumpert’s dunk routine as well. NBA commissioner David Stern told USA Today earlier this week that Lin will not be a special late addition to the annual Rising Stars game featuring rookies and second-year players All-Star Weekend.

Griffin is not defending his dunk title, but sources said that the annual dunk contest has a new format which will consist of only one round and in which the winner will be solely determined by fan vote. All four competitors in the 2012 dunk field are first-timers and will be formally announced later Thursday, sources said. Each entrant will get three dunks, with fan voting to open after the foursome completes their first dunks.

The new format for the competition – tweet your votes! – is an attempt by the NBA to get fans excited about the event, and though noble, it doesn’t change the fact that no marquee names are taking part in this year’s NBA Dunk Contest.

No offense, Jeremy Lin.

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  • robb

    Booooooooooooooooo

  • pacmac

    Paul George by a landslide.

  • SEAN

    Gonna be a wack dunk contest I could see it

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Well this is between George and Shumpert. That’s for damn sure.

  • chris

    king george and budinger will make it exciting. stuff i’ve seen online from george over the summer was crazy. check out chase’s footage from the mcdonalds all american dunk contest- some of what he did then could win now.

  • Rik Smits Mullet

    Not much faith in the new system especially fan voting sucks a lot.
    Last year it wasnt even as terrible as the nate robinson years.
    But i hope were going to see some original dunks and no more props.

  • http://slamonline.com steve

    Hmmm I wonder who’s going to win the fan vote if Linsanity makes an appearance?… Sounds like a joke instead of a contest.

  • Ldub

    my money is on derrick williams from Minn. But this is probably the worst cast of “dunkers” for the contest since ive been watching it! Horrible, Not worth my time.

  • Sizzle

    They don’t need to redo the format, they should just make it interesting from a financial standpoint. Put between 1-2 millie on the line and more players will want to participate. A couple K is like 10 bucks to these cats.

  • el_larsen

    budinger can jump.he s the underdog ,why not a brent barry?

  • angus

    3 point contest will be more exciting than this ish, where you at Westbrook, blake, bron, and d rose?

  • AD

    this might be good.. paul george is a beast, budinger can dunk but idk bout shump…. derick williams seems to be a ingame dunker but we’ll see. Lebron ,drose, westbrook just needs to rest

  • ripslam

    I’d bet on Williams myself. Dude is a filthy dunker. But seriously, only one guy (George) with more than two years in the league?

  • tonsoffunk

    Dudes… am I blind. I don’t see Jeremy Evans name on this list. This is wrong “the human pogo stick” probably has more dunks per minute than any one in the L. C’MON, let’s make it happen N.B.A.!

  • Rashiodonics

    Just put Lin in everything… no other contestants are needed. And rename the whole event to All – Lin weekend. Ratings will be through the roof.

  • http://redoftoothandclaw.ca/ niQ

    Has Nick Young ever been able to compete in the Dunk Comp? On another note, Fan Voting is so dumb for this contest.

  • bt

    fan voting in the dunk contest is a joke … also bring vince and j-rich back im sure they’d still win this year.

  • add

    dam really

  • http://www.slamonline.com the_unknown

    this dunk contest has potential to be worse than the one on all star weekend 2010 in dallas.

  • http://www.optimabbc.be Max

    PG is nice, Shump is nice, DWill has some bounce, Bud has some hops too but I don’t know bout his dunks tho.

  • http://Aol.com Kyle

    If they offer Derrick Williams and Beasley I don’t see how you can say no.

  • Bt

    I think the dunk contest has ran it’s course

  • http://Quitplayin quitplayin

    i think the year with wallace and nate etc was a a worse line-up but i really hoped for mcgee again, he was such a creative guy

  • LP

    Continue the dunk contest. Shumpert should take this, i saw some things during the summer that were eye-openers…

  • http://stapledesign.com Spaceship Jay

    Rest in Peace.

  • http://nba.com GP23

    I don’t wanna see any stupid props this year. Just be creative.

  • LP

    let Shannon dunk!!

  • QWOP

    yeah they should put a few mil as the prize and more players will want to participate

  • http://facebook.com/tronjohnson Chief

    Chase Budinger? Really? Well it will be nice to see Iman and DWill 2.0 go at it in the finals

  • http://www.fullc0urtpress.com KHoliday

    Yeaaa, so I’ll be playing NBA2k during this dunk contest!

  • Myung

    Really weak group of guys, especially if the NBA is trying to draw in the casual sports fan. All of us have heard of these guys, but how many people outside of diehard hoop heads know who these guys are? More people will tune in to see Rubio (for Williams) and Lin (for Shump) than the actual dunkers. I guess for the sake of ratings, the NBA would like to see Shump and Williams in the Finals so they can squeeze out a little more Lin and Rubio. Maybe one or both of them will steal the show the way Nash did in the 2005 Dunk Contest (when he teamed up with Amare).

  • JoeMaMa

    I agree with Sizzle. The league should either go big with this contest and put up $1 million, or cancel it. The dunk contest made its name through Jordan, Wilkins, Dr. J…shoot, even Harold Miner, when he was in it, was considering “the next Jordan”. That didn’t work out, but man, throughout the 80s and most of the 90s, it was BIG. And you KNOW that the league can find some corporate sponsor to put down a mil for a contest that would likely include LeBron, Blake, Wade…and more. Why isn’t this happening?!?!

  • wesjet23

    Stop complaining about these groups of dunkers, George is crazy, Budinger is very underated, Iman’s summer mixtape has some ridiculous dunks, and Dwill is an athletic freak

  • DeeDre

    Chase Budinger?….that’s not how you spell Demar Derozan

  • DeeDre

    But serious though Chase might do alright. He was the runner up in the Mc Donalds dunk contest so we might be in for a pleasant surprise. Never seen him dunk though

  • http://slamonline.com 1982

    fan voting in general is a complete joke

  • http://slamonline.com/ Ryne Nelson

    ^ Co-sign. Little star power, but this won’t be boring in the slightest. Chase has boosties, but what can he do in a contest?

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Boston George wins going away.

  • http://www.slamonline.com spit hot fiyah

    can some one please explain why they keep on using 4 guys every year, two guys lay egg and the contest ends up being wack. Used to be more participants back in the day. you could easily att 4 more. jeremy evans, terrence williams, deandre jordan, shannon brown(i know) (but still)

  • Paul H

    This will be so boring fans will be falling into comas In the stands.

  • ctk

    its only considered weak to people cuz they not great bball players so to speak…..neither was SpudWebb,HaroldMiner,GeraldGreen,TerranceStanbury,n the list goes on ….it can be a good contest …just atleast wait n see first

  • Dirtybird

    ^Good points, it should be better than last years using 30 minutes for setting up props.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Shumpert is the best athlete coming out of the draft in a LONG time. ANd Paul George is a freakshow. Those two will atleast do something exciting.

  • http://Www.slamonline.com TADOne

    I’m not even sure why people are questioning Budinger?! Did anyone see him play at Arizona?? Dude has springs in his legs.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Because it doesn’t just take the ability to jump high. Like LeBron, who has ridiculous ups, is not a very good dunk contest guy (which is also why I don’t think he ever did it, because he knows he has no shot to actually win).

  • DJ

    How about giving the winner $100,000, that’ll bring in some semi-big names.

  • Sizzle

    Hell now that I think about it, they should just have the dunk competition at half-time of the all-star game. 2 dunks per player (for those that can dunk). Break off a millie for it. Sit and Enjoy the show..

  • http://Www.slamonline.com TADOne

    I saw Budinger dunk in a high school contest and he was pretty good.

  • BP

    Sterbot is certainly seeking to squeeze every extra dollar out of using and marketing Lin that he can.

    Leagues need to move to a salary system that includes a big component of variable pay (a bonus system). Base + bonus, bonus based upon how well the league does for revenue and how your performance was relative to other players.

  • SwissArmyKnife5

    Man if the stars ain’t gonna dunk they need to cancel it, and have a one on one tournament. Each team would have one player to represent them. The prize should be 1 mil make it happen David Stern.

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