Image by Getty Images via @daylifeWelcome back, dunk contest. We missed you.
An event that had become a tired, trite exhibition in recent years was saved from jumping the shark Saturday; instead, Blake Griffin jumped a car.
And while some may complain about home cooking in the judging, the dunk contest has always been about entertainment rather than objectivity. This was the most entertaining one in years, and it had the best execution to boot.
The general pattern of the last several contests was to feature the same dunks embellished only by increasingly hokey pranks. This year's, in contrast, didn't feature cape-wearing or other bizarre, attention-seeking props. What it did have, instead, was several spectacular jams that we'll remember for years.
Washington's JaVale McGee didn't win, but he raised the bar several notches for future dunk contests by completing two of the most difficult dunks ever seen in the first round. He did a dunk on two rims separated by several feet, a feat that only a player with his incredible wingspan could pull off, and then did a dunk with three basketballs, two of which he dunked himself and the third he alley-ooped.
On both, McGee had to "no look" dunk with his left hand to focus on catching the ball in mid-air with his right. In the final round, he added to his performance with a swooping, cradling reverse dunk that required him to tuck in his head to avoid impaling it on the backboard.
Unfortunately, he knew the outcome was all but predetermined after Griffin jumped the car in front of the home crowd. Facing an act he couldn't follow, McGee's final dunk was a perfunctory off the backboard slam.
"He came prepared with the car," said McGee, "and nothing's going to beat the car unless I bring a plane or something."
Griffin's contest will be remembered for jumping the car, but his other final-round slam was no slouch either -- an up-to-his-elbow dunk that compared favorably with a similar one by Vince Carter in the 2000 contest. Unlike Carter, Griffin threw it off the board to himself first. A close-up afterward showed a rim-shaped impression on his inner arm.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2011/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=hollingerdunkcontest-110220
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