Well That Was Awful

I can't believe I am saying this but I miss Vince Carter.

I just finished watching the NBA Dunk Contest and needless to say I was left feeling underwhelmed. That was by far the worst Slam Dunk Contest ever and one of the most boring sporting events I have ever watched. It was so bad that I found myself changing over to the Canadian Womens Hockey game and not caring if I missed a dunk.

The only thing that made that even remotely interesting was Charles Barkley. I was killing myself laughing at some of the comments he was making and it reinforced my argument that Barkley should do commentary on a regular basis.

Here are some of his better comments:

"You ever notice Gatorade don't work on guys that suck"

"Man the Knicks got a lot of people here considering how awful they are"

"It would be impressive if he was taller than one of them" - Barkley talking about Nate Robinson and the Mavericks cheerleaders.

"Maybe nobody will win"

Now I am sure I won't be the only one to write something negative about the Dunk Contest but I will probably be the only person not blaming the participants themselves. I really don't its Gerald Wallace's fault his dunks were terrible. He is an awful basketball player and a below average dunker so really all he did tonight was live up to expectations.

The same can be said for Shannon Brown and DeMar DeRozan. Yes both of them are great dunkers but that is during games. Their dunks only seem impressive because they are usually happening while some 6'10 defender is in the way. Never have either of them shown flashes of creativity so all they did tonight was do what they normally do, except without someone in their way.

If you are looking to blame someone for this pathetic showing then blame LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith. Those are the best 5 dunkers in basketball and none of them had the balls to step up and compete and none of them, except Kobe who has a finger injury, have a valid excuse.

Why would LeBron not be in the Dunk Contest? Its not as if anyone has ever been hurt while competing or anything so what possible excuse could he have? This event would be legitimate again if it featured the best dunkers in the league like it used to when Jordan, and to a lesser extent Vince Carter, competed.

Maybe LeBron knew the event would suck and wanted to wait 1 more year so he could claim all the credit for making the Dunk Contest relevant again who knows. All I know is that this event is dying and unless something changes next year then it very well might never recover.

By the way what happened to using props? Last year Dwight Howard had the cape and the phonebooth and Robinson had the green shoes and everything. That made it a little more interesting at least. I remember a couple of years ago Gerald Green had a table and a birthday candle and Rudy Gay dunked with no shoes on. Where has the sportsmanship gone? Then again what could we really have expected from 3 guys (Wallace, Brown and DeRozan) who have the combined personality of a coffee table?

The NBA will surely do something to fix the contest for next year because I am sure all the top executives were watching that pitiful performance and heard the American Airlines Center sound as quiet as a church. All I know is that I want the last 60 minutes of my life back.

DeMar DeRozan, Nate Robinson, Gerald Wallace and Shannon Brown you can all go back to being irrelevant now.

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