Best Dunk Contest in Years WHO'S the BEST?

[bigboom]

This is the first dunk contest I have watched in a long time and agree that it was very entertaining. Say what you will, but the Dwight Howard superman jump shot was not a dunk. It should not have counted much less been given a perfect score.

why was it not a dunk? just curiosu why you woudl define it as not a dunk when dunks are defined as throwing it down?

[p_funk]

why was it not a dunk? just curiosu why you woudl define it as not a dunk when dunks are defined as throwing it down?

In my honest opinion a slam dunk is when a person goes up and throws the ball threw the hoop and grabs the rim. If you are going to define what he did as a dunk, then you would have to allow someone to do a finger roll and count it as a dunk. I am not saying it was not impressive, but I am sure if you asked if he ment to do that he would say no he ment to dunk it.

[HeywodJahblomeh]

actually he did exactly what he wanted to do. he didnt want rim. i was watching mike and mike in the morning and they had him on the phone and asked him about it. his response was something like "i didnt want to dunk the ball i wanted it to look like i threw it straight in, like something that is impossible to do, like something superman could do"

[Cleveland Gunmetal]

actually he did exactly what he wanted to do. he didnt want rim. i was watching mike and mike in the morning and they had him on the phone and asked him about it. his response was something like "i didnt want to dunk the ball i wanted it to look like i threw it straight in, like something that is impossible to do, like something superman could do"

Are you sure? Of course he's going to say that after the fact but I'm not entirely sure that's what he intended right before the dunk. I could be wrong.

I'm with the others who said he won the thing with his first dunk. His first dunk was awesome. The superman dunk, while cool and creative, I don't think was as impressive. To me, it almost looks like he jumped and realized he wasn't going to reach the rim and threw the ball in. Don't get me wrong, that appears to be tough to do but I think that took away from the dunk a little bit. Howard deserved to win, easily, but I'm not sure why a lot of people are just giving him the creativity points. I thought Gerald Green's birthday cake was pretty cool and very creative.

[BDE]

VC gets my vote.

And technically, it was a dunk. A dunk is throwing the ball into the hoop at a high speed. DH12 did that. It would have been a lot harder to throw it in that grab the rim.

Also, the judge's don't get to see the replay, it must have happened so fast, they might have thought he grabbed rim, so if that pleases the 'it wasn't a dunk fans' there you go.

[sonicblue]

The throw in was why everyone went nuts. He's seven feet tall and look where he left from. There isn't a 7 footer, built like him, that has ever done those things. (I read where his vertical leap is almost 40 inches.)

Yes, look where he left from, and he didn't reach the rim!!! He's 7' and he jumped high enough to throw it in from far away. Great. It's not a dunk.

[HeywodJahblomeh]

im 100% positive because they said thats what he was trying to do in practice he wanted it to look like he threw it through the front of the rim
but still the first dunk was amazing

[golf_junkie27]

Yes, look where he left from, and he didn't reach the rim!!! He's 7' and he jumped high enough to throw it in from far away. Great. It's not a dunk.

Sonic, that was the point of the dunk. The idea that it's not a dunk because he did not touch the rim is untrue. It's actually more impressive that he was so above the rim that he could actually throw it through the hoop.

[g-funk13]

There was a lot of banter in the media from Howard and Green about raising the rim to 11', 12', and even 13' for the dunk contest. it was all a little rediculous, but Howard has complained multiple times that the "Spud effect" (dunks look better when you have to jump higher) puts him at a disadvantage. I think the throw-down-from-a-distance by Howard was his next comment in that vein: he is much bigger than the other contestants.

Whether it was or wasn't technically a dunk, he clearly found a way to overcome the Spud effect.

[BDE]

Yes, look where he left from, and he didn't reach the rim!!! He's 7' and he jumped high enough to throw it in from far away. Great. It's not a dunk.

It is.

A slam dunk (or simply a dunk) is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket.

I hate having to get definitions, but yes.

[illmadden]

Vince Carter was my choice from the list. I think he had the best overall performance in the dunk contest. All his dunks were entertaining. The arm hang, reverse 360...c'mon, there's no contest! The between the legs dunk was possibly the best executed dunk I've seen in any contest. They were all creative. I know JR Rider is known as the creator of the between the legs..but it was quite sloppy with that kung fu looking kick he did.

I would also have included J-Rich to that list. His bounce pass, BEHIND then between his legs and one hand reverse dunk was incredible!

I just hope in the future, we get more big name contestants back in. Think how much more exciting the contest would've been if it was Kobe, J-Rich, Lebron, Green, and Howard?

[BDE]

I just hope in the future, we get more big name contestants back in. Think how much more exciting the contest would've been if it was Kobe, J-Rich, Lebron, Green, and Howard?

I hope that happens. I want a big named, 8 contestant, and at least another dunk added, and another round. Until that happens, the dunk contest doesn't interest me too much.

[T.J.K.]

From Webster's dictionary......The definition of a dunk is as follows....

"to throw (a basketball) into the basket from above the rim"

So like it or not, it was a dunk :)

[Jeepthrills]

From Webster's dictionary......The definition of a dunk is as follows....

Webster does not play basketball. I can dunk and that was not a dunk. Great show and if he had actually touched the rim it would have been awesome, but it was a 6" jump shot with a lot of speed.

Greatest dunk contests may have been 1985-1988. In 1985 Dominique Wilkins won, but Jordan got screwed. His scores were lower than they should have been in part because he wore Air Jordan clothes in the first round instead of his uniform. Apparently some of the judges thought he was too cockey for a rookie. Terence Stansburry might have been the best of them all that year. He just didn't have the star power. The 1986 one was awesome too. Spud Webb beat Wilkins with some awesome dunks for a guy 5'7". Jordan's best stuff came in 1987 and 88. In 87 he won but both Webb and Wilkins were hurt and didn't compete. In 88 they had the rematch and Jordan and Wilkins went head to head all night. http://frontrowsportsreport.com/2008...nique-wilkins/

[jm0715]

I'm a huge Jordan fan, but VC's "Superman" dunk, & the "Over theTop (of a head)" tops my list as probably the best dunk ever & it was NOT even in a dunk contest.

http://http://www.jordanextreme.com/...permanDunk.jpg

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mwwells/V...pic%20dunk.jpg

[MrKadash]

Late for this thread but I voted for Jordan. Not only was he an incredible dunk artist, but he brought the masses to the contest and helped make it what it is today, even though I feel some luster has been lost over the last couple of years. I would have voted Dominique Wilkins second, higher than the others on the list. He could really throw them down. He was the king of the windmill.

[Birdland]

Dwight Howard's performance in this year's slam dunk contest was really special. It's special because there is only just so many dunks that the human body can physically perform. Through the years, most of those dunks have already been showcased. That is why the last few dunk contests have been so boring -- we've seen all of that before!

Dwight Howard put two or three 'new' dunks into that list that I personally really thought was closed.

[Dent]

I love the dunks on NBA Live 08 on the 360. Those are my favorite.