Bay Area Sports Blogging

Superman has won the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest. After being jobbed in last year's event, Dwight Howard has come back for revenge. Dwight's mix of creativity and athletic skills totally dominated the competition. The other dunkers didn't stand a chance.

Dwight's first dunk, a behind the backboard windmill jam, brought down the house. This dunk requires a combination of hang time, soft hands, long reach, and lack of fear from crashing into the backboard. Not surprisingly, it scored a 50 from the judges.

The NBA has announced the roster for the 2008 All Star Slam Dunk contest. The dunkers will be defending champion Gerald Green, Dwight Howard, Rudy Gay, and Jamario Moon. The standout in the list has got to be Jamario Moon, a "rookie" for the Toronto Raptors. Moon has played for various basketball leagues since 2001, including a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Gerald Green won the Slam Dunk contest last year, with a windmill dunk over a table set as a prop. Green also dunked over fellow slam dunk participant Nate Robinson. Green was suppose to use a cardboard cut-out of Robinson as a prop, but Robinson ended up replacing the cardboard prop. Also worth mentioning is that Gerald Green did a Honey Dip dunk at the National High School Dunk Contest during his senior year. High school yo.

We're getting close to NBA's All-Star weekend at New Orleans. All-Star balloting has always been a fan popularity contest. That doesn't always work out well when the popular players are having an off year. It also screws over good players on losing teams in smaller markets.

Shaq is 2nd in voting for Eastern centers at 700,000 votes, right behind Dwight Howard's 1.4 million votes. Shaq sucks this year. He doesn't deserve to be an All-Star. Ilgauskas and Bogut are playing much better, but they are both hovering the 150,000 vote mark.

Chris Kaman is having a fantastic All-Star year with 17.6 points, 13.8 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game, yet Erick Dampier has twice the All-Star votes than Kaman. Dampier's stat line? 5.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game. Yeah, that's what we call bullshit.

Here are my NBA All-Stars for 2007/2008.

Its your boy BD, ya hear!!!

Baron Davis is having an All-Star year, leading the Golden State Warriors to 9 wins out of their last 11 games, good enough for a playoff berth in the loaded Western Conference. Without a doubt, Baron is the heart and soul of the scrappy Warriors team. Baron is also a key player in Don Nelson's mis-match small ball offense, and the numbers show it.

After dishing out my early picks for Eastern conference All-Stars, here are my picks for the wild West.

Gotta give the nod to B. Diddy! Baron Davis led the scrappy Golden State Warriors team to the greatest upset in NBA history. Boom Dizzle is smoking in at 24.9 points, 9.4 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks. He also brings in Jessica Alba to the Bay Area.

Next up at guard, we have Kobe Bryant. Throw out all the stuff you hear in the media. Ignore the trade talks. Kobe can ball. Kobe is averaging 27.4 points per game, 7.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game. The fans out in Chicago are probably voting for Kobe, because that's the only way the Bulls will have an All-Star this year.

We're only three weeks into the NBA season and the All-Star voting has already begun. Why do they start the voting so early? Because the Association knows the voting is worthless anyway, so they pimp the hell out of it. Not like there is much to go on, but here are my early All-Star picks for the East.

Starting with the Eastern conference guard position, there is no question that Jason Kidd is a perennial All-Star. The guy misses averaging a triple-double by 1.7 rebounds. Kidd's current stat line is 11.3 points, 10.0 assists, 8.3 rebounds, and 1.6 steals.

The second guard for the Eastern conference was a little tricky; there were a few players that could easily be on the All-Star team. Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, and Josh Smith are all having a good year. But I simply could not snub Josh Smith. Here's why.