Thoughts on LeBron not being in the dunk contest

Last night, while watching the All-Star game, I got so frustrated every time I saw LeBron James flying through the air to catch an oop from Wade or contort his body mid-air after jumping from a dead sprint, to reverse slam it, and monkey swing on the rim. As I'm watching this, all I can think of is "now why didn't dude enter the dunk contest?" The only legitimate reason a player can give me for not wanting to enter the dunk contest is fear of injury. I respect that. I understand that. A player's body, esp. their knees, ankles, and feet (crucial elements in jumping and landing from any dunk attempt) are how they eat, so I TOTALLY understand not wanting to injure yourself in non-essential activity like the dunk contest. HOWEVA, if you tell me that, yet turn around and do the EXACT SAME ACROBATICS in another non-essential activity like the All-Star game the VERY NEXT DAY, then I have a serious problem and must ask some tough questions. As a team owner I would have the same outrage if my star player got hurt dunking in a dunk contest that I would have if my star player got hurt dunking in an All-Star game. LeBron didn't approach the All-Star game in the same fashion as KG did. KG has a bad knee. KG shot jump shots yesterday. KG was not running around full speed trying to catch oops thrown up higher than the square on the backboard. KG played like someone who was concerned with not getting hurt. LeBron didn't. LeBron was "showin out"! I was impressed and I was disgusted. I'm like - "if you gonna show out, why not show out in the contest where you are judged and rewarded for showin out!". Since risk of injury OBVIOUSLY was not the issue, then I must ask, LeBron, are you afraid of losing the dunk contest? I tend to think that is the reason why dude didn't compete. Why else, after being totally unprovoked at last years All-Star game, would he say he would compete in the dunk contest in Dallas, and then back out? I've already established that risk of injury couldn't really be the reason. What I'm left to conclude is LeBron was afraid of losing the dunk contest, so he didn't compete. I can't really trip on him for having that feeling, because I had the same feeling in 8th grade. I won my school's spelling bee in 7th grade, but I was scared to lose my title in the 8th grade (esp. when I heard they had allowed 4th graders to enter the competition. I couldn't bear the potential shame of being eliminated before a 4th grader did, so I didn't compete). In hindsight, it was a punk move. I admit it. All I need for LeBron to do is admit it too. He's still my favorite NBA player, regardless. I am just a little disappointed. The All-Star weekend here in Dallas was ridiculous even without his participation in the dunk contest. If LeBron had of been in it, it would have just made the weekend legendary.

I thought Kobe was supposed to be hurt

How is it a guy who was SOOOO hurt that...

• he couldn't play but 3 minutes in the All-Star game


• he needed to put an ice pack the size of Mt. Everest on his hand when while he sat on the bench during the All-Star game


• the team doctors recommended surgery


• he is being viewed as being a tough competitor because he's putting off surgery until after the Olympics

yet...

• dropped 50 on the Mavs


• destroyed the Heat


• beat the Suns


• and is dunking HARD with his supposedly injured right hand

I didn't do a lot of dunking during my basketball playing days (read: never), but it seems to reason that banging my hurt hand against the rim several times a night would not allow me to go out the next night and shoot over 50%?

This reminds me of the old story of Michael Jordan having the flu and then going out and scoring 38. I've had the flu before and I didn't even feel walking 10 feet from my bed to the bathroom, so how was it that Jordan not only scored 38 but trusted to dunk a missed Scottie Pippen layup on a fast break (see around 2:03 on the video)?

C'mon, these guys do seem to do superhuman things (like LeBron's "I believe I can fly" dunk vs. the Bulls), but do we really need to add tall tales to the legend? There may be something out of whack with Kobe's finger, but I'm having a hard time believing that he is hurt.

Thoughts on the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Competition

Here are a few thoughts I had as I reflect on one of the greatest dunk competitions EVER!!!!

• Only somebody over 6-9 with long arms and at least a 35 inch vertical could even attempt Dwight Howard's behind the backboard dunk. Nate Robinson (5'8") could elevate high enough, but his arms would be too short to reach around the backboard to do so. Nate maybe could do it if he was dunking on a goal that had only a small section of the backboard hanging below the rim.
  
• Gerald Green is a victim of the Steve Francis/Tracy McGrady syndrome (having a great, normally contest winning dunking performance, but being unfortunately in a contest with a pantheon dunk competition performance a la Vince Carter).
  
• Gerald Green blowing out the candle has to be in the top 10 of dunk competition of dunks. Not only did he demonstrate creativity, but also the skill to jump high enough (its difficult to blow out a candle that is higher than your head), AND the ability in mid air to change his brain from focusing on catching the ball off the bounce while jumping, to blowing out the candle, to dunking a basketball with TWO hands - ALL without knocking the candle down or hitting is head/mouth on the rim. Impressive.
  
• TNT had bad live camera angles on both the Green candle dunk and the Howard tip-it-off-the-glass-off-the-bounce-with-one-hand-and-dunk-it-with-the-other-hand dunk. I could here Green expel air from the rim being miked, but it was only when I heard Kenny Smith's jumping around about how he blew out the candle, did I get the full effect of what happened. Also, on the Howard dunk, on the live feed I was not quite sure why Kenny Smith was talking about his leaving the building and all because of what he had just seen. It wasn't until after I saw the reply that I began flopping on my bed like a fish because I couldn't believe Howard did that dunk. I think the judges should have the benefit of replay before they give their scores because the difficulty and unrealness (yes, I'm making up a word) of some dunks can't really be appreciated until they are seen in slow motion or from different angles. For example, a guy jumping from the free throw line looks impressive initially until you get an idea of where he took off from. If he took off from in front of the free throw line, it should not be considered as high of a score as if he took off from behind the free throw line. Or take Vince Carter's arm in the rim dunk -immediately after he did the dunk the crowd was quiet, but they showed the replay and the place went nuts.
  
• Why is Dikembe Mutombo always somebody the camera focuses on for post-dunk reaction shots? Here he is in 2000 (see 3:01), 2001 (see 1:06), 2002 (see 0:13), 2003 (briefly see 1:04), 2008 before the Superman dunk (see 0:02) and after (see 1:13).