Being a fan of anything NBA-related, I completed my due diligence and watched NBA’s All-Star Saturday. During the first-round of the Sprite Slam Dunk Competition, I peeked to my left and the casual fan interest-level of the event could be accurately summed up – - my wife was fast asleep and displayed no signs of waking up.
She made it through the Shooting Stars, the Skills Challenge, and the Three-Point Shootout. It was the event that is billed as the marquee event that finished my wife off.
And who could blame her? The only memorable thing about the 2010 Slam Dunk Contest will be the fact that Nate Robinson made history by winning his third competition. Every other occurrence in this contest was truly forgettable. The best part of the contest was the commentary from Charles, Kenny and Reggie on how uninspiring the event was.
Only two dunks displayed any level of creativity on Saturday night:
- A first-round dunk executed by DeMar DeRozan (with help from teammate Sonny Weems). Weems lobbed the ball off of the side of the backboard with DeRozan trailing him. DeRozan caught the ball and windmilled it before slamming it through the hoop.
- A final-round dunk performed by Nate Robinson. Robinson tossed the rock off of the window, caught it with his back to the basket, double-pumped it and finished off a reverse dunk.
Shannon Brown did very little to excite the crowd during Saturday night's dunk contest.
Both of these dunks excited the crowd. But for the rest of the competition, the crowd was left shaking its heads.
As a group, this year’s contestants were relatively unknown to the public. With the exception of Nate Robinson, the fans really had no idea of what to expect for tonight’s dunkers. But it was pretty easy to assess that the marquee event of All-Star Saturday did not live up to its expectations.
NBA followers were hyped to see what youngster Shannon Brown would do. The Los Angeles Laker has created a highlight reel of impressive slams that have brought people to their feet. However, Brown’s competition dunks lacked originality and were very “run-of-the-mill”.
Gerald Wallace – who’ll be making his first All-Star appearance in Sunday’s game – was another participant in the contest. Wallace must have forgotten that this was a contest and not a game because his dunks were extremely weak. Gerald was throwing down regular dunks and had absolutely no remorse for doing it. Needless to say, he won’t get invited again.
DeMar DeRozan was inconsistent with his attempts. He would try a dunk with no flair and follow it with a creative dunk attempt. His execution of a dunk in which he tried to dunk over Weems was not good, and he didn’t hit it on his first try – which dampens the spirit of the fans.
After all of the other participants attempted lackluster dunks, Nate Robinson became the crowd favorite – almost by default. He successfully make two lob dunks with 180-degree spins and turns that may have kept the crowd from throwing objects onto the court. But even Robinson did not bring his “A” game, as he missed a dunk with a high-degree of difficulty and followed it with a very ordinary ball lob dunk. By virtue of his second final-round dunk, Robinson won 51% of the fan vote to capture his third dunk title.
Next year, I’m sure that I’ll be in my usual spot on the couch, watching All-Star Saturday 2011.
But I’ll be sure to have a pillow available for anyone not named T Lamont.
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T Lamont is an administator and author covering all sports for Ball or Nuthin'. Send T Lamont a question or comment for future discussion (tlamont@ballornuthin.com). 
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