Boy, what a dunk contest it was. Fun All-Star night. Easily better than last year's, which was extremely disappointing.
DeMar DeRozan got things started with a great between-the-legs dunk, which sadly earned a 44.
Then Serge Ibaka came in with an old-school dunk from the free-throw line. If you have seen the old clips, Julius Erving was slightly ahead of the free-throw line in his dunk and Michael Jordan was on the free-throw line. But the 6'10" Ibaka? His toe was behind the line, easily. And he earned a 45. That should have been an easy 50.
JaVale McGee then did a solid dunk, mimicking Dwight Howard's dunk, which was on a twelve-feet rim besides a ten-foot. McGee dunked on a 13-foot rim with a normal sized one next to it. He held two balls and dunk both of them at once. He dunked on the ten-footer as the other ball bounced off the backboard. McGee caught the ball and dunked that on the 13-footer. Solid dunk.
Griffin would then do a reverse jam, getting the crowd more into the dunk contest.
This would follow by more solid dunks, but it was McGee and Griffin doing everything. McGee would have more great dunks like three-balls in one jam to Griffin's elbow jam. What really was funny when McGee's mother, Pam, came onto the stage. You can read more about that here.
But Griffin ended the dunk contest with a dunk over a KIA car, along with a choir singing "I Believe I Can Fly" in the background (see dunk here). I have to admit, the dunk was kind of corny, though. But when you have that much props for one dunk, you're gonna have to win it.
But a solid competition none the less.
Along with that, Team Atlanta won the Shooting Stars' competition, and boy did they play well. I picked them winning this. Stephen Curry would win the Skills Challenge, owning it, literally.
You also had to enjoy the three-point competition. James Jones did not seem like the guy to win this, but he did. He had 16 three's in the first round, which is great. Daniel Gibson and Kevin Durant were at the bottom of the list with only seven and six three's respectively. Dorrell Wright had eleven three's, but was beat by one after Paul Pierce went on a roll on the last rack, hitting three straight three's to get to twelve and advance to the final round. Ray Allen looked like he had this, having 20 in the first round. In the second round, Pierce was rolling and ended with a high score. But James Jones would beat his number of 18 three's by putting up 20. Ray Allen was no match for that and Jones took home the trophy.
So I was 3-1 in my picks. I had Team Atlanta, Ray Allen, Stephen Curry, and Blake Griffin to all win their challenges, and they did.
Fun night. Looking forward to the game tonight as the East plays the West.
