I woke up this morning hoping to see Dwight Howard fuming all over the place. After all, he unleashed a truly historic dunk (at 2:35 on the video), got dissed by the experts, and saw his plan for dominance derailed slightly.
Young Dwight, though, is trying to be diplomatic about the whole thing. After all, he'll likely get just as many chances to wow American in the actual game, especially with Shaq stepping aside early for him. According to The Orlando Sentinel, he's making a valiant effort to take the Dunk Contest scandal in stride:
"We had some tough judges," Howard said, glumly, " I put it up there pretty high. I guess they didn't get it."For the record, Jameer Nelson's tape measure read 12 feet, 6 inches.
Howard's also convinced that, even if he had advanced, he still might have come up short. You tell me if you detect some uncharacteristic cynicism here:
As for Howard, he never got a chance to show the crowd his trademark kiss-the-rim dunk.For anyone wondering what that looks like, you can get a good look at it here.
"I was saving it," he said. "But that probably wouldn't be impressive, either, because I was too tall."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-18-2007 @ 1:24PM
TF said...
If I were Dwight Howard, I'd bring like 30 stickers with me to the game tonight and I'd put one on the backboard everytime I dunked or got a rebound as protest.
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2-18-2007 @ 1:43PM
jim williams said...
as a longtime celtics fan, why are there any celtics at the all star game. i mean you just set a club record for losses. i would not even want to be in the seats if i were a celtic player. became a fan in bob cousys final year, the jones boys, heihson and havichech, reggie and the bird, mr bill russel and the one called red. you guys stay home and work on being celtics cuz you suck at it
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2-18-2007 @ 2:03PM
Rosalie Troy said...
THE COMMENTS YOU MADE ABOUT THE CELTICS HAVING A LOUSY YEAR ARE QUITE TRUE, BUT IF YOU ARE, AS YOU SAY, A LONG TIME CELTIC FAN, THEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE SEEN EVERYTHING THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS YEAR. LOSING FIVE PLAYERS IS NO PICNIC. I, TOO, HAVE BEEN AROUND SINCE BOB COUSY, BILL RUSSELL, AND THE REST. JOHN HAVLICEK WAS ON ONE OF THE LOUSIEST TEAMS IN CELTIC HISTORY. IT HAPPENS. GIVE THESE KIDS A BREAK, GREEN BELONGED AT THAT SLAM DUNK CONTEST, WHY NOT????????? PIERCE IS AN ALL STAR. HE WAS HURT AND HIS TEAM WAS HURTING TOO. HE WAS A GOOD SPORT AND SHOWED UP AND SUPPORTED HIS TEAMMATE. TIME WILL TELL JUST HOW GOOD SOME OF THESE DRAFT PICKS ARE. HOPEFULLY, YOU WILL EAT YOUR WORDS SOMEDAY SOON.
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2-19-2007 @ 11:09AM
Robert Jones said...
The slam dunk event is a fan favorite and the judging was a joke. To penalize Dwight Howard for being tall, rather than looking for the creativity and athletic abilities that are rarely displayed by a young, big man us a shame. Having this combination of size and coordination packaged in such a humble young man ... Dwight may not have won, but Orlando sure did.
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2-25-2007 @ 8:29PM
Tom Jones said...
Plane ticket to Vegas = $300
Ticket to Dunk Contest = $75
Watching Gerald Greene crap on everyone = PRICELESS
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2-27-2007 @ 4:08PM
vic said...
OK, I see some of your points. We should turn this into a "Shortest-Man-to-Dunk" contest or a "Height-to-Leap-Index" contest. C'mon, gimme a break... there's no doubt that everyone in the world was impressed by Dwight Howard's dunks and wanted to see more. Plus, this was a chance for the NBA to get some more exposure for an up and coming young star. Instead, we can chalk up another "Slam Dunk Champion" along the Harold Minor/Isaiah Rider/Desmond Mason pedigree.
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