Although this year’s NBA All-Star Dunk contest in Los Angeles was one of the more exciting contests in recent years, in my mind it does not stack up to “Street” dunk contests. This year’s dunk contest had some unique dunks but certain dunks may have been under appreciated compared to others. The contestants were Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers), Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder), DeMar Derozan (Toronto Raptors), and Javale McGee (Washington Wizards). First of all, many of the players that the fans want to see in this contest, primarily LeBron, do not participate so players not well known participate. In my opinion this year’s dunk contest was focused more on the presentation of the dunk rather than the dunk itself. Don’t get me wrong, the dunks were good but some of the gimmicks were unnecessary. A few of the dunks may have been scored a little low and some may have been scored higher than they should have. Serge Ibaka jumped from behind the free throw line and received 45 out of 50 when many thought it was a 50. This stopped him from moving into the final round. The finals included McGee and Griffin and after two dunks each, Griffin prevailed as the winner. With that said, when you see the dunks that “Street Ballers” do, you seem to get amazed of what they do. If you watch the dunks in the video above you see dunks that have not been done in the NBA (now 17 dunks after today) and wonder why they don’t try them. These dunks are difficult and are sure to get a perfect score yet the NBA players don’t attempt them. On that note, DeMar DeRozan did 2 of these dunks and should have been in the final but was scored low and Griffin got into the final by one point. Griffin may have received the extra point because of the hometown crowd and because he was a fan favorite in the competition. This would lead to another flaw in the contest. The final vote came down to the fans vote and though Blake Griffin may have won the contest anyway, Griffin is one of the most popular players so many of his fans were likely going to vote for him anyways and made it unfair for McGee. Overall, this was a good contest but I believe that the real dunk contests are the ones that are taking place outside of the NBA.
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