Empty the Bench

Gerald Green Embarrasses The Competition

For those of you who read our article previewing the NBA Slam-Dunk Contest, drop us a line and we can tell you where to send the check. G-Money destroyed the competition with an array of impressive stuffs, including a perfect 50-point dunk on his last attempt. Green was so dominant that he threw down the three highest scoring dunks of the evening. If you haven’t seen it, check the Paul Pierce-assisted slam off the side of the backboard. It was sick. Gerald even donned a Dee Brown number seven jersey for a throw back, no-look dunk over a table. The dude can fly, that’s all there is to it.

I may owe an apology to the Dwight Howard camp. I’m a huge fan of his and I think he’s going to be one of the top two or three big men in the NBA over the next decade, but I didn’t think he could compete with these lighter, more athletic guys. Well, he held his own. The throw down where he slapped a sticker on the backboard (12 feet, six inches up!) was creative and displayed a ton of ups. The problem is, it just doesn’t look as impressive when a 6′11″ guy does it. Still, Dwight was fun to watch. And word on the street is this was the showcase his people were looking for to launch him as a global brand, so expect to see his face more and more in the coming weeks.

I don’t think anybody expected much from Tyrus Thomas, despite his considerable athleticism. Well, not much is what we got. He looked like a guy who didn’t want to be there. He punched his time card at the beginning of the evening, and punched out at the end. Honest money for an honest day’s work, eh? Nate Robinson at least looked like he wanted to be there, but the man-child simply didn’t deserve to be there. I know, he was defending his title, but he didn’t even deserve to be there last year, either. After putting half of the audience to sleep in the contest a year ago, he once again made a mockery of the event by taking nine attempts for one dunk. Nine. I’ve never even gotten rim before, but give me nine attempts and maybe I’ll get lucky, too. I think everybody outside of Manhattan would have preferred to see Andre Iguodala get another shot.

Anyways, many of you probably caught the contest yourselves, but I just thought I’d rub it in a little. For those that didn’t catch the show, enjoy the highlights below.