Dunk Contest: Last Bastion of NBA Xenophobia

Rudy Fernandez and JR Smith both got hosed last night in the dunk contest. It was as if the judges had predetermined that Howard and Robinson would make the final round, no matter what dunk they performed. I really wish that Rudy would have moved on to the finals. Maybe next year…

It’s exactly what the NBA wanted:

David versus Goliath / Nate Robinsion Vs Dwight Howard.

The entire talk leading up to the Dunk Contest has been about how awefull it was going to be and the fact that it continues to be a deminished part of All-Star weekend. The comment made about how the NBA knows how to "Rock All-Star Weekend" is correct because just like a Rock Band, you have no idea about what’s going on back stage before taking center stage. 

RUDY DEFINITELY GOT HOSED!  He stomped JR Smith, and was better than Nate in the first round.  I agree, there looked like some predetermination going on there.  And what about Dwight’s final dunk?  Come on……

Spanish guys have a lot of blue-eyed soul due to the near eon-length occupation of the Moors. Even when you breed it out of them, some vestiges remain.

Rudy’s first dunk was better then anyone elses. His second dunk was SICK!!!!!! I think it hurt him that he needed so many chances at it. Rudy should’ve advanced to the second round. Maybe it’s time to let the fans vote on all the rounds, instead of just the winner.

Should have been Rudy and Dwight in the finals, Nate’s second dunk was no better than a 35. Reggie and Kenny’s announcing during Rudy’s turns was embarrasing for TNT and not funny at all.

Yeah I really thought Rudy got jobbed. Even though it took some time to get that one dunk with Gasol down, it was actually pretty good.

I think he probably ruined it with the Martin thing. It took attention away from what he was doing and made everyone say what the hell is Martin?

I am Spanish, so I guess my opinion about this issue is really subjective. Anyway, I don’t think that Rudy’s dunks deserved the lowest grade of the contest… And I really cannot understand how the first round of D. Howard was perfect. 100!! Come on. You think thatthose two dunks were PERFECT?

Anyway, we’ll try next year. Go Rudy!

I turned off the event right after Rudy kept trying his dunk over and over and over and over again and then the next guy started trying to do his dunk over and over and over again.  THAT was a complete joke.  The dunk contest is a complete joke.

Dwight howard getting 100 points on both dunks was absolutely stupid. People talk about wanting equality, but it’s gotta be both ways. If you want to be respected in europe, you better give them respect here. 

Ziller, you are an idiot.

"Risking Wilson Chandler’s career is just not that thrilling. (Again, do it to No. 6 pick Gallinari and we’ll talk.)"

Ask any Knicks fan, Chandler is as valuable to us, if not more valuable, than Chandler. Wonder why he was our only representative in the Rookie/Soph game? He’s not a scrub.

Nate > Dwight in the first round

Everybody knows what the NBA has become, so I guess the question should be – is anybody REALLY surprised that a relative unknown euro representing the Portland Trailblazers got looked over in favor of a player representing NYC was put in the finals? 

Come on guys…

I think that the comments from the newscasters wee sickening. It shows the self centeredness of the sports world in the US. The rest of the world is supposed to know who is who, but they do not remember who Fernando Martin was.
Let’s not talk about the voting.

We should also remember that Rudy dunked in front of the face of Howard in the Olympic final and he was one of the members of the team that trailed by five in the finals and a member of the World Champion Basketball team in Japan.

On behalf of Pau Gasol, he changed the face of the Lakers last year.
Marc Gasol deserves better than the Grizzlies, Sergio Rodriguea needs more playing time in Portland, and Jose Calderon was close to the record of free throws made with 80 plus.

So much for amateurism in Spain.

America really didn’t do much for our stock by pissing off all of Spain now. There goes another chunk of the economy. I thought it was pretty tasteless to have them attack Rudi like they did. I also thought that it was predetermined who would win and that the judges didnt care about the dunks unless they were from Howard or Robinson. Also to call Spain amatuerish is pretty difficult to comprehend. They were the team that got to the Finals at the Olympics. If anything Spain is probally one of the top European teams along with probally Argentina and France has some good players in the NBA as well.

Rudy got hosed on his 1st dunk, and all the announcers should have been in on his tribute to Fernando Martin, Miller and Smith came off a little classless making fun of the jersey before Kevin Harlan explained it.

Rudy’s first dunk was very emotive for the Spanish basketball, since Martin was the first Spanish player in the nba; he really made something marvellous…IF HE HAD JUMPED ON HOWARD WITH THE VEST OF THE SPANISH SELECTION, HE WOULD HAVE LEFT HIM IN RIDICULOUSLY AND HE HAVE WON! but he doesnt made it! oh, dear!

RUDY IS THE BEST! A GREAT PERSON AND A GREAT "MATADOR"!
yes, Im spanish..¬¬
go rudy, go!

once again an anti-SPAIN-frame in sport … it seems that when we do something right if they laugh at us, this time a jury has been already knew what was going to vote before the start of the contest for mates and some commentators that they laugh at some of the most important basketball players
SPANISHWe are tired of it already.
VIVA ESPAÑAAA !!!
VIVA RUDY!!!!
And thanks to this post by Tom Ziller really likes your little …

All Star weekend is a complete joke.  My brothers and I used to record the events and watch Dominique and Skywalker duel it out. Bird and Dale Ellis dropping them from deep.  The set-ups in the dunk contest and the scrubs in the three-point shootout are riduculous.  We need the actual stars to compete and see what they can do.  In the dunk contest we should have 2 players from each position dunking.  That way they can compare Nate to someone his size and Howard to someone his size.  Lebron could have dunked on the 11 foot hoop (with more authority).  What could CP3 do against Robinson.  That would shake it up.

As for Rudy, his dunks were very underrated.  Rex Chapman took several tries on the dunk Rudy did and he did it smoother.  The other one was disgusting from behind the backboard, almost hitting his head, and coming around the other side.

As for the guy who says Robinson deserves it because he’s from NY and that Chandler isn’t a scrub…What have the Knicks done lately? Where are the banners?  Stop acting like your team is the Yankees…you’re in New York (a great city) but your team is too pathetic to use your name to give players value.

Only two ignorant disrespecting fools as both Miller and Smith showed us they really are could call spaniard players amateurs and make supposed funny jokes about one of the all time european greatest basketball players.TNT might do something about that. The fact of having an ‘in the air’ microphone does not make those jerks journalists… at all.As for Rudy’s participation, I would call it innovating. We could finally see something different but sadly it was not enough for the member of the jury truly supporters of Howard’s show. Anyway, even when it seems everything was already set up, and although his second dunk was really mediocre, I think Nate was probably the best. 

First, the NBA was internationally biased by granting Rudy a shot in the dunk contest. Now, the NBA is internationally xenophobic for ragging on Fernandez for a pretty lame dunk attempt.

Look, the NBA itself is all about expansion these days. The players and commentators, quite often, are still catching up. It wasn’t so long ago that Shaq was speaking about Yao in mock-Chinese, and now you look at the uproar Miley Cyrus has caused with her slanted-eyed pic and wonder how O’Neal got off so easy.

All of that still doesn’t discount the observable poor quality of Rudy & Pau’s  ad-nauseum dunk attempts. Or of whatsisname throwing the ball in from the stands, or Howard rolling out the phonebooth AND an extra rim for his dunk.

Yeah, Nate won the competition before on a dunk that took far too many re-tries, and I was just as bored and discouraged by that display as I was Fernandez’s snooze-fest.

This isn’t about Rudy, this is about the demise of the dunk competition as a display of the artform of dunking.

I thought the competition had jumped the shark when they brought out that unholy wheel years ago. This year, I guess we can say the competition Jumped the Howard.

"Now, the NBA is internationally xenophobic for ragging on Fernandez for a pretty lame dunk attempt."

It’s all relative. Compared to the other dunks this year, it was outstanding.

I realize this is now three days old which in internet time is like the paleolithic age, but I gotta get in.  Missing really hurt Rudy on his second dunk.  Half of the appeal of the contest is the dunk execution and half is the surprise of seeing an innovative dunk.  Once it became clear what he intended to do, he had to absolutely kill it to get a high score.  Unfortunately, he didn’t kill his (very difficult) dunk, putting a damper the "wow" factor. 

That being said, even if he’d jumped out of the building, the fix was definitely in that night.  The NBA would never have gone to the  trouble of setting up a phone booth (on a stage, no less), arranging for a basket on a forklift, giving Howard a cape, letting Robinson change into his kryptonite getup, AND rolling a green ball out there without knowing for damn sure those two are going to wind up in the final.  This year the even moved from "contest" to "stage play".

Although I know this would never happen, I still think it’d be great to have a "street ball vs. NBA" setup where the best street dunkers go against the NBA guys.  The street guys would be out there trying like hell to win the thing and I think the NBA players would have enough pride and swagger to want to show they’re the best.  Ah, to dream.

It’s not his nationality.  It’s his race.  Eric Holder is right.  We are cowards when we talk about race.

What do you expect from Regina and Fizzed Jet Smith, every one known they are racist. I dint watch the contest, but i can bet the judges are mostly black.