By Dalton Del Don
First off, I almost missed H-O-R-S-E (or more accurately, G-E-I-C-O. I would give this sponsorship a hard time, but that company usually comes correct with its commercials, so I’ll let this one slide), since it occurred in the middle of the day and without much notification. Secondly, if you did miss it, I’m jealous, since it was largely a snooze fest. Come on guys, have some fun with the event. Very lackluster. Although the winning trophy was pretty sweet.
The players involved in the skills competition appeared to be sleep walking. It’s OK to at least feign like you care about winning and are trying guys. Derrick Rose’s reverse dunk to finish off his win was nice, but his time was a full 9.5 seconds behind Steve Nash’s record, 9.2 seconds behind Dwyane Wade two years ago and 4.1 ticks behind Deron Williams in 2008. Pretty significant.
The three-point competition was a bigger joke, featuring some of the more prominent scrubs in the NBA. If you’re not into judging shooting ability by name recognition, the fact no one topped 20 threes in a given round should do the trick. And any supposed drama of an overtime round was ruined when Rashard Lewis went ice cold, tallying a pathetic seven points during the extra period. And your winner? The immortal Daequan Cook! Not that Jason Kapono or even Craig Hodges were exactly studs, but at least give us a show. And as farfetched as it sounds, I’d argue the announcing by Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller was even worse than the shooting performances.
And then there’s the dunk contest, which continued the theme of hopefully you are attached and missed the events while on a Valentine’s Day dinner. Nate Robinson actually used a human to boost him up to make not one, but two of his dunks! Call me Joaquin Phoenix (now officially a synonym for crazy), but shouldn’t you be deducted, not rewarded for that? And not a chance he wins it if Dwight Howard doesn’t help him out. That said, if that rim was 12-feet tall Howard dunked on, I’m Santa Claus. Hopefully LeBron James can help save this catastrophe next year.
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