2010 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Doesn't Deliver

Where have you gone, once-mighty Slam Dunk Contest? Can someone – anyone – please bring back the high-flying days of MJ, ‘Nique and VC?

With all due respect to Nate Robinson – who collected his record 3rd NBA Slam Dunk Title – last night’s contest was a dud from start to finish. Nobody stepped up at all to put on a ‘real’ show – including Robinson himself – who eventually won almost by default against the likes of Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan, LA Lakers’ Shannon Brown and Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace.

TNT announcer Kenny Smith, a former three-time dunk participant, made a great point during the broadcast. He explained how ‘back in the day’, guys would take the competition seriously and properly warm up in anticipation of ‘putting on a show’ for the fans. Smith described how this year’s competitors basically dogged it from the start, spending more of their time shaking hands with celebrities than getting a proper sweat going.

Robinson, appearing for the 4th time in the last 5 years, clearly had nothing left to prove. To his defense, he’s battling a groin injury. But his best dunk from last night wouldn’t even crack his all-time top ten from years’ gone by. With the exception of a couple of flashes from DeRozan, who slammed home the dunk of the night, this event lacked both firepower and starpower. The guys often performed like they were scared – scared to embarrass themselves by missing. Instead of truly going for it, they’d deliver these unspectacular safety net fallback dunks on their 2nd attempts that were ‘Rec Centre worthy’, as Smith and the rest of the TNT panel joked.

Stoudamire and Mintz-Plasse were McLovin' it

Ok, so maybe everyone doesn’t agree with my take. This morning, I stumbled across an article from associatedcontent.com, a site generally not regarded by hoops fans as a ‘go-to’ for basketball info and analysis. And based on their accounts in this year’s Dunk Contest recap, it’s pretty easy to see why.

Here’s an excerpt: “As such, (Robinson) is the first contestant to win three titles in this event – making him a better dunker than Michael Jordan, Spud Webb, and all the other dunking legends.”

Uh, not exactly.

Until the NBA and its true superstars get back to their roots (yes, LeBron – that means you) and decide to take this contest seriously, I hope the league will spare us another letdown like Saturday night’s. For everyone’s sake.

Highlights from All-Star Saturday Night

* Click on Stephen Curry and Dwight Howard to see their truly remarkable shots from this past weekend in Dallas.

* Hats off to the Suns’ Steve Nash, winner of this year’s Skills Challenge. After appearing the night before as a torch bearer in Vancouver at the Opening Ceremonies, the two-time MVP hustled down to Dallas just in time to dethrone the Jazz’s Deron Williams. No wonder he looked so gassed after completing the course in under 30 seconds for the win.

* And what was up with Erykah Badu’s performance of James Taylor’s, “You’ve Got a Friend”? A strange, sombre song choice for an All-Star Saturday Night, to say the least.