Cody's Blog

When the contestant list came out this year for the NBA dunk contest, I was certain that it was a joke. Aside from defending champion Nate Robinson and an extremely solid player in Gerald Wallace, they had a rookie in DeMar DeRozan from the sub-par Toronto Raptors, and a role player at best from the Lakers in Shannon Brown. My favorite going in was Robinson, as he had won two previous contests, and more importantly, he is merely 5′9″ (On a good day). Robinson did not disappoint, bringing home his third title with 51% of the vote. Unfortunately, after the event, Nate the Great announced that there will not be a fourth attempt at a dunk contest championship, as he is “retiring” from the competition. What I want to know is when we are going to get the superstars in the contest. Where is Kobe, LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony? Back in the day, all the very best players participated in the contest. You had legends Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, Julius Erving, and Patrick Ewing pulling off behind the back dunks, free throw line jams, and many more variations. Now, the best dunkers do not even participate in the contest. Instead, we get the likes of DeRozan, Shannon Brown, Hakim Warrick, Tyrus Thomas and Rudy Fernandez. No respect to these guys, but they are not the most prolific dunkers in the world. Just think of the hype and recognition there would be with a Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant contest? With Nate ending his dunk contest career, who are the future contestants going to be? Lets just hope we do not have to suffer through more role players and rookies performing un-original dunks.