4-H

All Star Weekend: NBA Dunk Contest

by Eric Yuan

This year’s dunk contest was perhaps the best one since the memorable Vince Carter/ Tracy McGrady/ Steve Francis showdown in 2000. The contest featured Dwight Howard, Jamario Moon, Rudy Gay, and Gerald Green but it was clear from the start that it would be a duel between Howard and Green to decide the winner. Howard mesmerized the crowd with his first attempt – a windmill after tossing himself an alley-oop from behind the backboard. The dunk earned him a perfect score of 50. Green countered the dunk with his own touch of creativity by blowing out a birthday cake in the air right before his dunk. The cake was a cupcake place on the back of the rim with a single lit candle. Green impressively blew out the candle and dunked the ball without knocking the cake off of the rim.

The dunk drew great applause from the crowd and the judges, but it was Green’s only spectacular dunk of the night. Dwight Howard continued to stun the crowd in the second round by tossing an alley-oop from the ground, tapping the ball off the backboard with his left hand and then slamming it down with his right hand. The dunk of the night was when Howard removed his jersey to reveal a superman outfit and a red cape. Howard received an alley-oop from teammate Jameer Nelson and took off from just below the free throw line. Howard did not dunk it, but rather threw the ball through the hoop from above. The arena was filled with cheers behind TV broadcaster Kenny Smith’s cheers of “You win, Dwight! You Win! It’s OVER!” Howard did go on to win the contest with a unanimous decision by the judges and 78% of America’s vote. The Superman Dunk as well as the tap-off-the-backboard dunk have now gone down as two of the top dunks in dunk contest history. And just when the NBA thought the dunk contest was going downhill… Superman saved the day.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of 4-H Youth Mentor Eric Yuan. Do you disagree or have something to add? Click here to have your message posted on our website.