Dunk Contest

I know I talked about dunking last week, but in game dunking is completely different than the creativity needed to dunk in a dunk contest. I have followed the dunk contest for probably 10 years and the dunk contest has been on the decline. In my opinion the dunk contest is on the decline because of the lack of star power in the dunk contest. Many casual basketball fans would not have known any of the dunkers last night. Despite the lack of star power in the dunk contest 3 million votes were cast. However, the voting could have been a little off because there are ways that people could have voted multiple times. This year the champion was also crowned strictly by fan voting. During the dunk contest tweets were already appearing on ways the dunk contest could be improved the dunk contest used to be what the best players wanted to be in. Now it is more of a "I am a star I don't do that" type of thing. It is great for the young guys who can help make a name for themselves because of their dunking.

So now a break down of come of the dunks. In the dunk contest the best single dunk did when with Jeremy Evans catching two balls from teammate Gordon Hayward and jumping over him to dunk them.



Some people do not like the props and putting on a show for the dunk contest. However, many people loved it last year when Blake Griffin dunked over the hood of a car. My second favorite dunk was Paul George with the glow in the dark clothes doing a 360 windmill. I liked this dunk for two reasons, first it was extremely creative, two it was still a hard dunk and he made it on the first attempt.



Finally my third favorite dunk was Derrick Williams catching a oop off the side of the backboard before he spun and dunked it. This dunk followed some of the other better dunks of the night and I thought their was hope for the dunk contest, however the third round was a disappointment for me.



No offense to any of these dunkers by any means, but if the NBA wants to get more people to watch the dunk contest they need to get more stars involved.I pose this question to the readers what four players would you like to see in the dunk contest. My four dunkers would be, Lebron James, Russel Westbrook, Derek Rose, and JR Smith. All of these dunkers are great in game dunkers and they could put on a great show. Even if their dunks were not as great or creative their star power alone would increase the success of the event. Who do you want to see and what was your favorite dunk of the night?

Best Dunk

It is a little past due, but I still think it could be addressed. Lets get started on some of the controversy surrounding Lebron and Blake Griffin dunking on Kendrick Perkins. Once Blake Griffin dunked Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and all forms of media and social media were going crazy. Many athletes were Tweeting about the dunk and how it is possibly the best dunk that they have seen in their life. Many professional athletes of all different sports tweeted about the dunk, none was more controversial than Lebron's tweet, I am not sure why Perkins was freaking out however.

"Dunk of the Year!! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!! Wow!! I guess I'm #2 now. Move over #6"

After Lebron tweeted this Perkins replied calling Lebron out about it. Perkins did not say anything about any of the other tweets that had occurred from players such as David Lee and Eric Gordon. Lebron finally stood up for himself and chose not to be the scapegoat on this one which I thought was long overdue.



Since I am on the topic of best dunks I should throw in Lebron's Dunk just several days earlier.Social Media did not blow up quite as much during Lebron's however the dunk was still amazing. dunk Both dunks were great in their own way. Lebron's degree of difficulty was a little higher because it was an alley oop. The fact the he jumped over a person and not through one I also think makes it harder.



I will let you guys decide. Comment and let me know what you guys think. Is either of these the best ever. Don't forget about Vince Carter dunking over a 7 footer in the Olympics. So I ask you this question what is the best dunk of all time?

Jeremy Lin

Alright after these couple weeks a new player has emerged that has been a trending topic on Twitter, Jeremy Lin. Lets figure out who Jeremy Lin is, he is currently a 2nd year player for the New York Knicks, 23 years old, point guard. What makes him different than any other newcomer in the NBA than, besides he has quickly become a fan favorite. How about the fact that he came from Harvard. Ivy League schools do not put out to many NBA players. Lin was undrafted and worked his way through the ranks in summer ball with the Warriors. Lin is the last Ivy league player since Chris Dudley in 2002 to make it to the NBA. Lin is currently averaging 11.9 points 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists but, in the last 5 games he is averaging 26.8 points, 8 assists, 2.2 steals, and 4.2 rebounds.

Jeremy Lin has quickly taken over Twitter and his hashtag #Linsanity has been trending off and on for the several weeks he has began showing that they can play basketball in the Ivy League. I cannot refresh Twitter fast enough because people are constantly tweeting about him all around the world. I recently joined the craze and started following Jeremy Lin on Facebook. Here is an article sharing how how social media has been taken over by Jeremy Lin . I may have to check back in on Jeremy Lin later on. I do not want to say he is a fluke, but will he maintain his dominance on the court and in social media when Melo and Amare comeback. I sure hope so it gives me some more topics to right about. That about wraps it up thanks.

All Star Voting and the Internet

First things first I will give a little introduction to myself and then get into my thought on All Star Voting. First My name is Tim I am a Senior at the University of Northern Iowa. I will be posting blogs about basketball and different things about it possibly things like how players may use social media, to best dunkers, and the player efficiency rating. So stay tuned it should only get better.

All Star weekend is a weekend filled with a skills competition, a dunk contest, a three point shooting contest, a rookie versus sophomores game, and the main even the All Star game. How do these players get picked though. Part of what makes me mad about the All Star Voting is its a pure popularity contest and it has been for awhile. Players are able to be voted onto the team while being injured for most of the year. With the ease of internet access, voting has sky rocketed. With a quick search of past voting numbers at http://www.insidehoops.com/all-star-voting-results.shtml showed me that Even in 2005 the leading vote getting had 729,178 votes not a bad turn out for one of the first year fans got to vote. By the way that player was Yao Ming. This years the player who had the most votes was Dwight Howard and he had 1,600,390 votes. These numbers are great now and show great support for basketball. But, how many of these people know what they are talking about.

I feel that the NBA players or experts should vote in half and fans get to vote in half. Some Players in the NBA who should be voted in get left out because of the small market they play in. Well That is pretty much what I think about All Star Weekend. I hope that was not too pain staking.