The 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk contestants were announced today, and Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson were surprisingly absent. Jokes aside, it will be an exciting crew this year with four legit dunkers. I was a bit disappointed to read the list of participants for one reason, though. During last year’s competition, LeBron James stated his intentions of participating in the 2010 Slam Dunk contest, but wasn’t included amongst this year’s competitors (for whatever reason). Having James in the contest would have taken the hype around the All-Star festivities to a whole other level. Maybe he felt as though he had more to lose than to gain by entering the contest. We see his highlight reel dunks on a nightly basis, but who knows how that might translate into a contest setting.
Still, this year’s contest will have some good story lines and solid competition. Here are the contestants:
Nate Robinson – The diminutive mainstay of the Slam Dunk contest will attempt to become the first three-time winner of the competition. I’ll be intrigued to see what else Krypto-Nate has in store this year. It seems as though the longer you stay in the contest, the more diluted your ideas for creative dunks would become. Robinson will always have somewhat of an advantage because of his short stature. People love to watch short guys dunk, and higher ratings are usually easier to come by because the dunks are more visually impressive (and inherently difficult).
Shannon Brown – Brown has amazed us all year with his ridiculous hops, and has become a fan favorite in Los Angeles. Brown campaigned to be a participant in the contest, by using www.letshannondunk.com, and now he has his chance. Expect some eye-level-with-the-rim dunks from Brown. He’s certainly a dark horse in this contest, but he has a great chance of winning.
Gerald Wallace - I’m a huge fan of Wallace, who’s been appropriately nicknamed “Crash.” Wallace is a high-flyer known for some posterizing dunks. If you want your face dunked on, there’s no better player to do it than Wallace. However, I would imagine that Wallace is more of an in-game kind of amazing dunker, so I’m interested to see what kind of special dunks he can come up with for the contest.
Eric Gordon/Demar DeRozan – While last year’s contest used a general fan vote to solidify the fourth participant in the contest, the NBA is going about it in a different way this year. While fans will still be able to vote (by text), it will be based on a single-round slam dunk competition held during halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge. Whoever is chosen will advance to the Sprite Slam Dunk the following night. While Gordon more of the “shorter player with big hops” type, DeRozan is an athletic high-flyer that is certainly capable of putting on a show. It will be interesting to see what strategies these guys implement. They’ll want to do a dunk that is impressive enough to get into the official contest, but they should save their best dunks for the actual contest.
Who’s your favorite to win the dunk contest this year?
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out of this group, i would have to go shannon brown i think, he has some freaky hops and i think has the most potential to get creative. on a side note, you see what shaq said yesterday about calling out kobe and vince? that would be awesome if he could get something going, i doubt it, but theres a chance