The Buzz Around the NBA

Recently, everyone in the NBA has been talking about the incredible dunk that L.A Clippers center DeAndre Jordan threw down on Tuesday night March 12, 2013 against the Detroit Pistons. The Clippers with all of their high flying dunks have been nicknamed “Lob City” and the dunk by Jordan is the epitome of that nickname. The dunk immediately grabbed the attention of the sports world and became the topic of sports conversation for up to about three days after the dunk. Teammate Blake Griffin, winner of the 2011 Slam Dunk contest  playfully said, “ I was amazed, I only dream about landing dunks like that,” when asked about the dunk during his postgame interview.

I believe the dunk was incredible but I disagree with how unfairly Brandon Knight (player being POSTERIZED) was treated and the fact that he became the butt of a lot of jokes when he was simply doing the correct thing, HELPING ON DEFENSE!  The dunk will go down as one of the best dunks of all time and it is deserving of that credit, but now the pressure is on Jordan as well as Lebron James and other great dunkers to bring all of that excitement to next year’s dunk contest.

Can Lebron James Save the All Star Weekend?

The past weekend, the NBA hosted its annual All Star Game weekend in Houston, Texas. Festivities featured events such as the skills competition, three-point contest and the slam dunk contest. The slam dunk contest was expected to be the most thrilling event to watch but it actually turned out to be the most disappointing. The NBA believed it was doing the fans justice by saving what they believed to be the best for last and started the dunk contest at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Fans waited until then anticipating a display of enormously difficult, high-flying dunks performed by the best high-flyers in the NBA.

Instead, fans were disappointed at how the selected group of high-flyers which were all second-rate players attempted multiple dunks which most were unable to complete. The newly competitive style of competition between the East and West All Star teams that the NBA has implemented to this weekend was supposed to add a little more excitement to the weekend, particularly the slam dunk contest. This year’s dunk contest was intended to be the best in nearly five years but instead we had to sit through one of the worst contests in history.
 

This is the reason why many believe the dunk contest should include the stars of the NBA today such as Lebron James, who has never took part in the dunk contest. Many believe Lebron should participate in the dunk contest because all the greats who had an aerial assault to their skill set did. Lebron is on record, saying he would not compete in the contest but rather suggested that fans vote on his in-game dunks. I believe Lebron should compete in a dunk contest before he retires, not because other greatS have done so but because the fans are eager to see how he would perform. Lebron prides himself on servicing his fans and what better way to do so then to give them what they are begging for.