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.
Dwight's second dunk will be getting all the media attention. The Superman dunk raised the bar on showmanship. Dwight doned a Superman costume, complete with flowing red cape. Purist will bring up the fact that Dwight did not exactly dunk the ball. Dwight gained massive air on the dunk as he jumped from a step inside the free throw line. This is a 300 pound, seven footer dunking from near the free throw line. With a red cape.
Dwight's third dunk sealed his win. Dwight lobbed the ball in the air, and let it bounce off the floor. After the bounce, Dwight jumps with the ball, uses his left hand to tip the ball off the backboard, and dunks the ball with his right hand. In essence, he combined two forms of alley-oop passes into one dunk: a lob pass and an off-the-backboard pass. This dunk requires soft hands, accurate passing, high vertical leap, and great timing.
Dwight's fourth and final dunk involved taking the basketball off a miniature Orlando Magic rim attached to the backboard and slamming it down with a windmill dunk. What makes this dunk impressive is the height of the ball at rest. On most dunks, the dunker has the ball on the way up. In this case, the ball is resting at rim level before the dunk. The dunker can not start the windmill dunk until they have reached the peak of their jump.
Not to say that the other dunkers did not put on a good show. I enjoyed Gerald Green's Birthday Cake dunk and Jamario Moon's lob 360° dunk. Sorry Rudy Gay, but your dunks sucked. I picked of Jamario Moon to win the event. Oh well.
The Internet world got a sneak preview of Dwight's dunks, by visiting this page. http://my.nba.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300023465.
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