Is The NBA Slam Dunk Contest Officially Back?

It's always been entertaining to me. Even when Chris Anderson was attempting ( and missing) the same dunk 30 times. The judges add a little more entertainment, but would you watch anything just to see the judges? It's all about the players in this one.

I'm not watching. They didn't even invite last year's REAL winner, and the rumor is they didn't invite him because he said he got robbed. What a joke.

Who cares about judging? Get Vince and Kobe to participate.....

they need jrich. kobe and vince won't participate because if they lose to some rookie or soph. it hurts their rep

You mean Vince Carter's rep an underachiver who only puts forth effort when he wants to or Kobe's rep as an adulterer?

That's why you need stars in this thing. And why do we only have four now? Make it 8 like it used to be and have the opening round be only one or two dunks and only allow one miss. Make Kobe, Vince, J-Rich, LeBron, Iguodala and the other nasty dunkers participate. If David Stern can delegate what players where and where they go at night (or at least trying to accomplish this), then why can't he make these guys participate in something like the dunk contest?

I believe there's a clause in the collective bargaining agreement that says if you're invited to a league event, you have to go unless you're injured. Look at the skills competition, it's packed full of stars. The NBA should have just invited Kobe, Vince, Lebron and whoever else.

That may be true, but the league would never invite Kobe unless he wanted to go. The NBA has done everything in thier power to keep their Super Stars healthy. They protect these guys more the NFL looks out for QB's. They probably don't even want these guys participating in the All-Star game for fear of injury. I wish they had 8 guys also.

I'm pretty sure there's an exemption for the dunk contest. It's a place to make a name for yourself, but I think the more established stars are afraid of embarassing themselves. It seems that there's a lot of reputation on the line in the dunk cont=est...the Chris Andersen's of the league have nothing to lose if they miss a few in a row (except for their dignity), while it could hurt Kobe's reputation, hence endorsement money, clout among teenage girls in Colorado, etc.

I don't really agree with that. The reason the fans want these superstars in the contests because of their dunking skills. I can't fathom any superstar putting on the awful shows that Chris Andersen and Nate Robinson did. The best dunkers in the world don't have to come up with gimmicks like Robinson had to resort too. They also need to limit the misses. If you miss twice, you're through.

SIDENOTE: Just in case it wasn't clear, I give ZERO credit to Nate for last year's performance for three reasons:

1.He won the contest because he's short. That's it. His victory was the equivalent of someone winning a homerun derby with fifteen line drive homers that just cleared 300 feet. Yeah it's still a homerun, but 5 monster shots beat out little rinky dink crap any day of the week as far as entertainment goes. Would you rather see a 6'6'' Jason Richardson throw the ball off the backboard, than through his legs and finish with a tomahawk or a 5'7'' Spud Webb throw the ball off the ground and barely get the ball over the rim? Robinson is a better dunker than Spud, but not by much.

2. Doing wacky shit before the dunk is not impressive. Jumping up, putting the ball around your back and through the legs, then coming down, jumping again and dunking was God-F'n-awful. And was anyone impressed when he finally nailed it on the 13th try? He looked like a kid who was getting picked up from basketball practice but wanted to heave as many halfcourt shots as he could before his parents said "Ok. Enough. Let's go."

3. Iguodala's under the backboard dunk was simply MUCH, MUCH better.

Dunk for Dunk, Iguodala's slam was by far the best in the competition...maybe ever.

Absolutely. If you have to watch it again to see what he did, you know it's an amazing dunk. Robinson's a little punk.

It was great, but it isn't close to Vince Carter's. That was amazing,

The dunk contest is for younger players. Its is there coming out party