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Nate Robinson

Nate “Lex Luther” Robinson bested dunks of defending dunk champion Dwight Howard in the 2009 All Star Dunk Competition in Phoenix. The two advanced after beating J.R. Smith and Rudy Fernandez in the first round.

The highlight of the first round featured a throwback by Rudy Fernandez to the late Fernando Martin. It was still a great tribute even if throwbacks were a little old for this competition. He only scored a 42 from the judges in spite getting his first try on a behind the back pass off the backboard and slammed it in with his right hand. I felt that he should have gotten a better score than that.

There were some sick dunks in this competition too, as we saw Dwight Howard throw it off the side of the backboard, catch it with one hand and throw it down with power. We also saw how Dwight Howard put on a show by wearing his signature Superman cape and coming out of the phone booth and catching a pass from Jameer Nelson to dunk it on a 12 feet high ring.

The highlight of the event would be Nate Robinson as after his second dunk, he went straight to the locker room and people felt that he might have injured something in that dunk. He came back later wearing green from his jersey to his shoes and socks to even his arm sleeve. This was his armor and kryptonite to Superman and it served him really well as he was able beat crowd favorite Dwight Howard.

Dwight Howard’s dunk from the free throw line wasn’t that spectacular compared with Nate Robinson’s dunk over Howard that won the people’s votes and crowned him the Dunk Champion in the 2009 Slam Dunk competition.

How do I rate this All Star Dunk Contest?

I give this a 7.5 out of 10. I wasn’t really blown away by the dunks this year even if I try to convince myself that I wasn’t expecting too much after what Superman Dwight Howard did last year. The players were trying to do too much and even though they did it, it really took a long time and a lot of tries before they were able to execute the dunks.

I’m talking about the Pau Gasol pass off the back board to Rudy Fernandez which took 100 tries before Fernandez was able to complete the dunk. J.R. Smith also had a hard time doing one of his dunks because of bad timing and passing from Sonny Weems, whom I haven’t even seen play this year.

Of course, this contest wasn’t just about dunks that failed to please the crowd. This was Nate Robinson’s night. He and Dwight Howard put on a show during the Finals but Nate Robinson was really the kryptonite to Superman. It was fun to see how little Nate got so high in his dunks and won the people over the text lines. He will be looking to defend his title against Lebron James next year in Dallas.

Oh yeah, by learning in this contest that Lebron James will be entering the dunk contest next year, I’d have give this contest an 8 out of 10. Looking forward to next year..

Rondo in Deng in a Suns uniform..not bad!

Since the arrival of Steve Nash in the valley of the Suns, Phoenix has been one of the strongest teams in the West. They were well coached under Mike D’Antoni with his run and gun style of play and they had a great core with Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw. Half of that core is gone now and they have a new coach, Terry Porter, for this 2008-2009 NBA season and they also have new faces but not necessarily young legs. In fact, the two players, Shaquille O’neal and Grant Hill, they’ve traded for and signed the past two years are turning 37 this year.

Former MVP Steve Nash will be turning 35 this year, and wouldn’t it be nice if the Phoenix Suns had kept some of their first round draft picks that they’ve traded during draft night the past 4 years? (more…)

After voting for my all stars at nba.com I checked the leaders of the 2009 Nba all star ballots. There were a lot of surprises in the top three of each position except the center slot. It made me realize that some players just have the fan support even if they’re not that deserving to be starting in their respective conferences. Or maybe the fans of other players really feel strong for the other players they voted in to be all stars. 

Players like Tracy McGrady and Yi Jian Lian are in the top three of their respective positions in their conference. When it comes to their play it is a bit surprising but when you come to think of it, they have such a huge fan base that they can easily get into the starting lineups.

It was just surprising to see some big names not being at the top of the ballots or at least getting few more votes. Players like Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy and Danny Granger are some of the players I’d like to mention. One can argue that they’re up against bigger names like in Granger’s case, a player named Lebron James. Or for Brandon Roy who’s going up against Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and yes, the number two in guard spot ballots in the West, Tracy McGrady. But for Roy to just get 267,053 votes is just crazy. This guy is an all-star for me. 

If I had my way this would be my 2009 NBA all-stars that you should see in Phoenix in February. (more…)