Who will win the NBA slam dunk contest?
by USA TODAY Sports, USA TODAY
They might not be household names, but the participants in Saturday night’s Slam Dunk Contest are young, high-flying and could put on a show.
This used to be the highlight of the weekend, with stunts like Dwight Howard’s superman suit, Cedric Ceballos’ blindfold, Vince Carter’s between the legs, Michael Jordan’s high-flying slam from the side and Blake Griffin’s jumping over a car.
Not sure if we’ll see that on Saturday, but the contest, which will begin around 9:30 p.m. on TNT features a group of no-names who other players say won’t disappoint. The field is James White of the New York Knicks, Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors, Gerald Green of the Indiana Pacers, Eric Bledsoe of the Los Angeles Clippers, Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz and Friday night’s Shooting Stars MVP Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets.
Now before we get to who will win, here’s this disclaimer from former NBA star Dominique Wilkens.
“I do wish the stars would come back to the dunk contest,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, if you got all the stars to take part in the dunk contest you wouldn’t have a ticket left to sell. You can’t get a ticket now, but if those guys were in it, forget about it.”
While we agree with Wilkens, it doesn’t appear that will happen any time soon. Dwight Howard told reporters: “A lot of us don’t participate in it because we do so much during the All-Star weekend, that by the time we get to the dunk contest we have no legs. We’re standing, doing appearances all day. And when you do the dunk contest you want to have your legs, you want to be ready to go. You want to put on a good show for the fans. I think some guys don’t want to get embarrassed in the dunk contest, so they just choose not to do it.”
A flimsy excuse we think, especially coming from a former winner. But we digress. Let’s get back to this year’s contest.
So who will win? For that, we asked some of the more interested fans, … [For more on Who will win the NBA slam dunk contest?, click here.]
Loading ...
