Nate's dunk and judges' decision raise eyebrowsIt's been a couple of days, but people are still talking about it. "It" is the NBA's All-Star Saturday. A big guy won the 3-point shootout. A little guy won the slam dunk contest.
The honors go to 7-foot Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas for winning the 3-point shooting contest - and to New York Knicks rookie Nate Robinson, who, at 5-foot-9, became the NBA's new jam king. Robinson's performance - and the decision by the judges - forced the crowd to its feet.
Robinson beat out 6-foot-6 Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia, 6-9 Hakim Warrick of Memphis and 6-9 defending champ Josh Smith of Atlanta, conjuring up memories of Spud Webb. Robinson then dunked over the smallest slam champ in NBA history. Some call it skill; others call it theatrics. The story of the dunk contest, however, was the Iguodala/Robinson showdown, in which Robinson missed more than 20 total dunks and still won.
Copyblogger Brian Clark weighs in with an interesting perspective on the big event. Check out his post, The Definition of Irony.
Related: Slam Dunk contest scoring raises plenty of questions
Tags: NBA, Basketball, Nate Robinson, Sports, Media by Sistrunk
3 comments:
I think Andre was robbed from the ritle. He certainly deserved it after the 2 tied. However, Nate's dunk over the 86' Slam Dunk Champion was amazing, to say the least.
Abrar: Needless to say, you have plenty of company on this one. For readers who didn't see what happened, Robinson's stunt earned a perfect 50-point score from the five-judge panel. It forced a dunk-off against Iguodala, who had received two perfect scores.
I think that it's hard not to take sides on this one. Iguodala certainly has his supporters, and one could make the argument that he was robbed after he received two perfect scores. On the other hand, how many athletes would have tried what Robinson did?
Big men don't need hops to dunk. But if they have a reliable jump shot, it can't hurt.
According to many sports commentators, Robinson and Nowitzki are part of the changing NBA game, in which giants roam the perimeter while guards go hard to the hoop. The beat goes on.
I agree that Andre should have won the dunk contest. Nate tried 15 times on the same dunk twice, and the judges still were very lenient. Also, Dirk should not have had his last basket of the first round count. He released the ball as the buzzer sounded. Otherwise, it was another spectacular All-Star Saturday.
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