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Let Shannon Dunk!

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Chris Litmann of The Baseline — the NBA blog at the Sporting News — was up early this morning surfing the Nike Basketball blog and noticed they may have leaked some news:

Shannon Brown is in the dunk contest. Apparently.

If you follow the link (you may need to get a Nike basketball ID) you’ll see the rules for the Shannon Brown iD Slam Dunk Contest — basically to help design a pair of shoes for Brown to wear during the dunk contest. Using some Sherlock Holmes-like deductive reasoning, one could assume that there is no need for a shoe design contest if Brown were not in the dunk contest itself.

This is not the NBA itself saying “It Is On” but Nike tends to be in the know. So….

Let Shannon Dunk!


Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Mimsy says

    Aha! Now I have an excuse to watch the dunk contest!

    I mean, other than rooting against Nate Robinson…

  3. Snoopy2006 says

    I really hope Nate Robinson isn’t in the contest this year. The little-man shtick was fun the first 14 times, now it’s boring.

    I just hope the selection committee doesn’t disappoint again. Iguodala is a must, he does creativity without going over the top into theatrics like Dwight.

    The judging for the dunk contest is vomit-inducing awful. Just rank. They either pull the Old-Man-Who’s-Seen-It-All act like Jordan and give out 5’s, or they all stand up and scream and give out 10s before the dunkers even come out of the locker room.

    Also, if Anthony Morrow isn’t in the 3-point shootout, I’m writing a strongly worded letter.

  4. Lakers8884 says

    This news really excites me, I actually think he has a strong chance of winning because Dwight Howard And Burger King James are probably not going to participate.

  5. Ryan says

    He is certainly athletic enough to be in the contest. We will have to wait and see how creative he is.

    I guess DeMar DeRozan and Eric Gordon are going to have a dunk off during the half time of the Rookie challenge and youth Jam to decide who the final contestant in the contest will be.

    I didn’t know Eric Gordon could dunk well enough to be in the contest.

    http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=14988

  6. Gr8 Scott says

    Shannon has the hops, the mitts and the ferociousness to take this contest. Here’s to keeping him healthy enough to make a run at it. Too bad that All-Star Saturday won’t be at Cowboys Stadium (it will be at AA Arena). Can you imagine 100,000 people watching a dunk contest?

  7. the_capital_t says

    That’s cool and all, but in watching the highlight reel…so many of Shannon’s best dunks are ON people. Which makes me wonder: why can’t the NBA Dunk contest be reconfigured to be a challenge like soccer’s free kick?

    “One dunker. One shotblocker. One ball. One rim. Whose will be done?”

    I would camp out to watch that. The dunk contest as is…meh…I’ll watch the replays. But I don’t feel like the current iteration of the live event is all that inspiring or exciting.

  11. Aaron says

    I just hope Lebron doesn’t weasel out of the dunk contest. I want a rematch of their high school dunk contest where Lebron barley beat Shannon.

  12. Snoopy2006 says

    Aaron – I have a feeling Lebron might try and do exactly that. He’s already started backing off slightly in interviews. If he does weasel out – after that ridiculous stunt last year, trying to take part of the spotlight from Dwight/Nate in the middle of the contest – I’ll lose even more respect for him.

    Shannon’s got the hops, but a lot of dunkers do. To me, it’ll come down to Shannon’s creativity. In-game dunking is very different from a dunk contest. It’s why I want Iguodala, his creativity matches his athletic ability.

  13. R says

    7 – “One dunker. One shotblocker. One ball. One rim. Whose will be done?”

    Great idea, but folks might get hurt!

    Monte Ellis is another guy who can dunk ON people well, but not sure how creative he is.

  14. Aaron says

    I think people mistake body control with creativity. Jordan was an amazing dunker of course because of his hands and leaping ability… but his body control is what set him apart. Shannon’s body control is suspect… but we will see.

  17. Hillary Ocholla says

    Wow, Nike took down the link. It was working earlier today, I even designed the shoe already 😀

  18. Anonymous says

    Wheres the preview son? We need to smash these clippers and put them back in their place before Baron starts going off on the league with this new-re-found confidence.

  19. han says

    weren’t they gonna let one non-nba player dunk in the contest this year? nba.com had a page where fans can vote for which street dunker they want to go against the pros, but I can’t find it now.

    that “air-up-there” guy would be awesome to see in the contest. did a 720 in a game, and did a 360+windmill+reverse w/ both hands last summer…

  22. Eric says

    I think it’s common knowledge of NBA fans that everyone knows Lebron is afraid of being shown up by another player so it wouldnt surprise me if he didnt compete in the dunk contest. I bet he’s afraid it will harm his image in basketball fans eyes if he lost the dunk contest, especially to a player who isnt regarded as highly as he is.

    Although I hope everyone got to watch the Jazz Cavs game last night because it was an instant classic.

  23. Burgundy says

    Shannon needs to recreate with Gasol the dunk Gasol did with Rudy Fernandez last year where Gasol bounces it off the back of the backboard, Fernandez caught it in the air, and then came around and dunked it. The luster was lost on the dunk because Gasol kept screwing up the bounce, but I think with Shannon’s hops, and Gasol now knowing the best way to do it, it could be a pretty terrific dunk…

  25. Mimsy says

    Eric, what you’re saying about Lebron and weaseling out makes perfect sense. Remember, he’s a winner who doesn’t have to respect his opponent if he loses, because he’s a winner…

    But please tell me, how does he think that weaseling out of the contest because we all know he’s scared of these lesser known and shorter players, will benefit his image? 🙂

    No I don’t like the guy. I love watching him play, but he needs to stop being so in love with his own “greatness”.

  26. Karl says

    It really was a given from the start considering all the attention he has been getting and the name on the front of the jersey. Besides, who else do they have lined up, Eric Gordon?

  27. Eric says

    Mimsy your exactly right he does, remember Jordan Crawford dunking on Lebron during the summer in his own camp and the cover up that followed, he continually shows that the only player he has real respect for is himself.

    I remember seeing Skip Bayless talk about how Lebron only wanted to change his number to “honor Michael Jordan” but in reality it’s because he wants to create hype over where he’ll end up this summer and the prospect of the merchandising that would follow with him wearing a new number on his jersey.

    I like you enjoy watching him play (sometimes) but his whole attitude and ego really bother me. And if he wants to be considered one of the best to ever play the game why not play in the dunk contest and win it, because I’m pretty sure 2 of the best players ever to play the game (Kobe and Jordan) won it as well. He is NOT too big of a player to compete in the dunk contest, and I can see him really thinking that.

    On another note Nobody will ever outdo what Vince Carter did the year he won the dunk contest so every year I watch but I never expect it to be as great as that year was.

  28. Adam says

    Nobody is bigger than the game. Now go dunk Bron…it’d take a ShanWOW dunk from the three pt line to beat king crab legs anyways…