DeMar DeRozan defeated Eric Gordon in the league's first-ever Slam Dunk-In, and earned himself a spot in the real deal on Saturday night in the process. But the mini-competition, which took place at halftime of Friday night's T-Mobile Rookie Challenge, was so lacking in excitement that it wouldn't be a surprise if the league discontinued it after experimenting with it just this once.
Each player took turns and got to complete two dunks, but without the immediate gratification of the judges holding up numbered scorecards due to the fact that fans would be voting on the contest's winner, there was definitely something lacking.
And then, there were the dunks themselves.
DeRozan's first effort was his best, a through-the-legs, overhead slam with his left hand that would have surely drawn high scores in the main event on Saturday. But while DeRozan executed this dunk on the first try, Eric Gordon seemed to make things harder on himself than was actually necessary.
Gordon missed a series of passes off the backboard to himself in his first attempt, before finally settling for something a little more basic. His second dunk was a good one, flying by the front of the rim from right to left and catching a pass from O.J. Mayo for an acrobatic slam, but again, it took him several attempts to do so, and that took the air out of the building a bit.
After the dunks were completed, there was a two minute session where the arena hype-man begged the people in attendance to TEXT TEXT TEXT in their votes. I know there's talk of a lockout on the horizon, but my goodness -- the NBA doesn't need the extra revenue that badly.
All in all, it was a pretty weak event, and one that came through with the outcome that was expected the moment the participants were announced. We'll see what the league comes up with next season, but whatever it is, it's got to turn out better than this.
Source nba fanhouse
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