Yesterday I linked to an image of the warmups for Kobe and LeBron. These warmups had the accolades for both players. Well, the photo above is what Michael Jordan's warmup would have looked like if he had been an all-star this year. This was created by Cork Gaines and his story is here. MJ is still the greatest of all time.
Was the winner of the dunk contest pre-determined before the voting period ended?
During the dunk contest, fans had the opportunity to text, tweet or vote online for the winner of the slam dunk contest. The winner was in the fans’ hands.
They had a countdown clock so fans knew how much time was left before the voting period ended.
But curiously, Nick Cannon was handed an envelope which appeared to have the results. This was with nine seconds remaining in the voting countdown. Were the results of the voting already tallied before the voting period ended?
So that dunk contest was hard to watch. The final dunks were decent but everything else was just hard to watch.
What is the solution? How can we make this thing better?
Obviously the problem is the lack of star power. I didn’t even know who was in this dunk contest until I looked it up. There was no star power here. It would be great if we got some big name players in this contest.
You know what’s sad? I don’t even know who’s in this year’s dunk contest. I should know, but I don’t. The slam dunk contest has now become so boring that it just doesn’t excite me anymore.
Looking at the dunks of years past, I am reminded about the creativity in the dunks. There was a sense of pride in going out there and putting on a show. Great dunkers entered. Popular players entered. The dunk contest used to mean something. It was a deal that was worth making a fuss about. We don’t have that anymore.
Big names such as LeBron James won’t join it. Instead, we are getting some no namers that might be good, but the hype isn’t there. Instead, we enter this All-Star weekend with not much build up towards the dunk contest. What happened along the way?
Good for Mr. Double-Double.
In 1997, Latrell Sprewell was selected to his third All-Star game with the Warriors. It was a great time for the organization despite their struggles as a team. Little did we know then that the Warriors wouldn’t have an All-Star representative until 2013.
David Lee has been selected as a reserve for this year’s annual no-defense game. Stephen Curry in my opinion should have made the cut but he’ll be at home during the break.
HERE’S THE REST OF THE ALL-STAR ROSTERS
Since it’s been such a long time since the last Warriors All-Star, I decided to go to reliable Wikipedia and see what was big in 1997 — the last time the Warriors had an All-Star.
Space-themed Kevin Durant shoes with a subtle star and #35.
Check this out. Nike unveiled the shoes that LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant will be wearing for the All-Star game that nobody really cares about.
As is customary for many All-Stars, the game is a showcase of new footwear for the consumers. Nike has taken the idea of space travel (the game is played in Houston) and given these three players shoes to reflect that.
NBA 2K13 had unveiled what the All-Star game jerseys would look like in the NBA but now we have official confirmation on the design of the set. As you can see above, this is the design Adidas (still hate them) will have the players wear. Once again, we’re having color vs color for the annual non-defense game.
Thanks to ESPN, they’ve given us some details on the design.
• The jersey designs are inspired by what adidas is describing as “Houston’s rich aeronautical history and the speed of the jet planes that dot its skies.” The stencil pattern for the letters and numbers is based on the stenciled numbers on a jet.
• The jerseys have a subtle background pattern that adidas is calling “impact camo,” although it really looks more like an abstract mish-mash.
Kobe was clutch while LeBron was not.
“Yeah, he was telling me to shoot it,” LeBron James recalled of Kobe Bryant’s message to him during the final seconds of the All-Star Game. “I wish I could have that one back.”
That was LeBron James’ recent years as an NBA player in a nutshell. Even during a meaningless exhibition game, James had the opportunity to take the final shot and give his team a chance to win but decided to pass that shot up.
What happened on Sunday was another sad example of how James refuses to rise up to the occasion. Despite all his great work during the game, when the team needed him to step up one more time late, he didn’t deliver.
A part of this is our fault as fans and media in how we perceive the basketball star. Have we kept expectations too high for James? Since he entered the league, the league has wanted to make him a star. But since he bolted to the Heat, it was clear that maybe James doesn’t want to be the star.
I remember back in the day when the dunk contest used to be a real entertaining part of the NBA All-Star weekend. I still remember watching the dunk contest from Vince Carter and was blown away by such a fantastic performance.
But for a while, it wasn’t all that fun. It was nice seeing Jason Richardson win back to back titles. But I think it was in 2006 when Andre Iguodala was robbed of the title when I started to not care so much about the contest.
As you guys remember, Iguodala put on a great show but Nate Robinson won the contest despite going over his time limit on dunks. And when I saw that, I knew that the dunk contest was losing its flair.
These are the new jerseys for the All-Star Game.
Adidas has released images and a press release pertaining to their NBA All-Star game uniforms set to be worn on February 26. According to the press release, these were inspired by the iconic uniform set from 1992 — also held in Orlando.
I don’t see the resemblance. Well, I can see that you have the team name sandwiching the numbers, but that’s it. And also it’s color versus color. But with Adidas, I am really disappointed with a lot of things they’ve done since taking over the NBA.
