Jumping Gerald Green
Posted on February 18th, 2007 by
Pretty good slam dunk competition, kind of disappointing finish though, the best dunks (except maybe the windmill over the table) were all done in the first round. At least this year, the best dunker won (cough, unlike Iguodala getting robbed last year, cough), but none the less there was still plenty of favoring the little guy, or discriminating the tall guy. I mean Nate Robinson’s first dunk was awesome, definitely deserved that score, but his second one? Come on, your kidding me. And then Dwight Howard on his sticker dunk? Wtf was Jordan smoking, an 8? That was one of the best dunks of the competition, I mean he went up dunked the ball, and put a sticker of himself at the 12 and a half foot mark. That’s just sick.
In my opinion, the competition has kind of digressed in my opinion over the last two years. 2005 was an awesome event, Josh Smith pulled up some fantastic dunks, then last year it was complete bullshit with all the rigged point system and 20 tries at a dunk by Nate Robinson, and then this year the final round was just kind of conservative. What I would’ve liked to see this year was the judges (Michael Jordan, Dr J, Dominique Wilkins, Vince Carter, and Kobe Bryant join in the competition. But in general I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more dunkers on Saturday night, I mean its like the main event of the night.
Boston’s Gerald Green capped All-Star Saturday with an acrobatic leap over a table to win the dunk contest, and Miami’s Jason Kapono fell just short of an event record while winning the 3-Point Shootout.
Green, the Celtics’ 21-year-old swingman, performed his two most memorable dunks in the first round before that lengthy final leap over a 3-foot table bearing the All-Star game logo for a windmill jam and perfect 50 score to cap an event that gets tougher to revolutionize every year.
“I’ve always dreamed about being in the dunk contest, (but) I never dreamed about actually winning,” said Green, who was in high school in Texas two years ago. “Just coming out here to Las Vegas and winning it for my fans in Houston, my fans in Boston, is tremendous.”
Green first made an electrifying two-handed slam on an alley-oop pass off the side of the backboard from teammate Paul Pierce in the first round. Green then jumped over fellow finalist Nate Robinson while wearing the No. 7 Celtics jersey of 1991 dunk champion Dee Brown — and shielding his eyes in the crook of his elbow in an homage to Brown’s memorable no-look dunk.
Green easily won over the five-man judges’ panel of Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter — particularly when Robinson, the diminutive 2006 champion, missed nine straight times on his final dunk before finally landing a one-handed spin slam.
“I knew they were going to be tough, because those guys had the creativity and the dunking style,” Green said. “I tried to come out with something they never did before, (and) hopefully they could give me a score.”
Green and Robinson eliminated Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas in the first round, even though the 6-foot-11 Howard came up with the most original move.
While catching a high bounce pass from teammate Jameer Nelson for a right-handed slam, Howard reached nearly to the top of the backboard to slap a sticker bearing his face onto the glass — 12 feet, 6 inches off the ground, according to Nelson. #
