While the NBA geared up for its All-Star festivities last weekend in Los Angeles, I - like many others - was interested only in watching L.A. Clippers rookie phenom Blake Griffin participate in the annual slam dunk contest. There was no doubt in my mind that Griffin would win the contest, as he has had some mind-blowing dunks this season and has been featured in many of SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays. In what was an equally impressive non-dunk, Griffin, during a game a few weeks ago, hit the side of his face on the backboard while he was still on his way up.
Expectations aside, I was shocked when Griffin was crowned dunk champion last Saturday night. Griffin made what already was meant to be a show into a farce. His dunks included far too many histrionics and were just not creative enough to leave me overly impressed. On one dunk, Griffin was left hanging with his entire arm through the hoop - a move that Vince Carter showed the world in the 2000 contest. That was not even Carter's best dunk of the night as he went on to win rightfully.\nOne slam which I particularly enjoyed last Saturday - a dunk with shades of Dwight Howard putting a sticker near the top of the backboard during the 2007 contest to show how high he could get - was the teddy bear slam by Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka. In the round which saw Ibaka eliminated - the same round as Griffin's seen-before, "arm-through-hoop" dunk - the Thunder forward grabbed a teddy bear positioned at the rim with his mouth while dunking the basketball. Ibaka's dunk demanded intense concentration and that he jump high enough to have his head level with the basket. The judges were not as impressed with Ibaka as they were with Griffin and eventual runner-up JaVale McGee, however, as the latter two moved on with near-perfect scores.
It all makes me wonder if the contest was fixed. With Griffin the last to go during the semifinal round, the judges knew just how many points he needed to pass Ibaka and advance to the finals. The whole night was centered on Griffin's hype and his dunk in the finals was the most over-the-top and unnecessary of them all - not to mention it clearly had been planned for the finals the whole time. For some reason, Griffin brought the Crenshaw Choir onto the court to sing before his dunk, as if that added to the quality. Griffin also had a Kia wheeled onto the court and positioned below the rim.
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