NBA Slam Dunk Contest 2012: Jeremy Evans Wins Disastrous Event

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POLL: What Was The Worst Effort Of NBA Slam Dunk Contest?

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POLL: Did Jeremy Evans Have Best Jam In NBA Slam Dunk Contest?

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Derrick Williams Is Persistent

On a night of tributes, Derrick Williams' capped the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest off by paying homage to Nate Robinson. It was only fitting that the dunk contest ended this way. It wasn't a leap over a car or a lasting dunk -- just Williams trying, and failing, to complete his night ... over and over again.

He began by trying to throw the ball off the backboard to himself before putting it between his legs for the jam. After two attempts that weren't even close, he brought Ricky Rubio in to toss it off the backboard for him. That still didn't work, and things started to get awkward.

Here's a helpful montage of his attempts. It ends with success, which is good for all our morale.

And so it ended, mercifully. A night of spectacular "meh" ended with an awkward two-minute session of misses and a fairly bland dunk.

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DeMar DeRozan Reacts To The Dunk Contest Disaster

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Paul George Pays Tribute To Larry Bird With Sticker

Indiana Pacers forward Paul George ramped up the creativity in the second round by turning out the lights and wearing a glow-in-the-dark uniform for a visually interesting dunk. In the third round, he rewarmed an old idea: the sticker dunk.

George put a sticker of Boston Celtics legend and Pacers bigwig Larry Bird on his left hand and attempted an up-and-under slam from the corner. The only problem? He missed on his first four attempts, and put two stickers up without putting the ball in the hoop.

That left George to merely execute his dunk on his subsequent tries ... while still going through the motions and slapping the backboard without putting up a sticker. It was anticlimactic when he finally slammed one home, but he did put up the night's best result, a 40, on the Dunk Intensity Meter.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Jeremy Evans Pays Tribute To Karl Malone

It's become a tradition recently in the dunk contest for the participants to pay tribute to legends from their team or their personal basketball heroes. One dunk after Chase Budinger decided to pay tribute to Cedric Ceballos by duplicating his blindfolded dunk, Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz decided to pay tribute to one of the greatest players in that franchise's history, Karl Malone.

Actor and comedian Kevin Hart came out dressed as a mailman, delivered Evans a throwback jersey and then stood under the hoop. Evans put the jersey on and jumped over Hart before throwing down an impressive dunk.

The dunk itself was solid and the tribute to Malone was a nice touch, but dunking over Kevin Hart? Paul George dunked over 7'2" Roy Hibbert. It would be stunning if Hart was even 5'6".

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Chase Budinger Does The Cedric Ceballos

Chase Budinger went for a simple, but classic dunk for his third attempt, paying homage to Cedric Ceballos by breaking out the blindfold. With Ceballos looking on, Budinger blindfolded himself, took his run-up ... and missed on his first attempt.

So of course this presented an opportunity to bring the audience into the mix. Ceballos gave Budinger a few words of advice, then the crowd counted out the steps to the hoop. Either this was an elaborate rouse -- come on, Ced's blindfold had holes -- or he really couldn't see.

The crowd and Kenny told him when to jump on the second try and wouldn't you know it, he did! And he pulled off a reverse jam, so that's something neat, I guess.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Derrick Williams Does 360 On Ricky Rubio Alley-Oop

Derrick Williams' first dunk in the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was little more than a windmill over a motorcycle he drove out to some old school California funk. His second dunk was a huge improvement on the first, and not just because it involved Ricky Rubio.

For the second dunk, Williams came from the corner, caught an oop off the side of the backboard from Rubio, and whirled around for a thunderous 360.

In a second round that included Jeremy Evans dunking two balls at once, Paul George turning the lights out for a glow-in-the-dunk, and Chase Budinger doing a mere windmill, Williams definitely upped his game to rival the two more creative competitors. But Williams is probably no better than second in the minds of the fans voting at the moment, so he'll need another good dunk in the third round to have a chance to win.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Paul George Debuts The 'Tron' Dunk

Paul George took a few attempts to make his first dunk and needed to switch it up to jump over Roy Hibbert, but he got incredibly creative on his second dunk and made his dunk on the first try. In a dunk contest first, George brought out some black lights to light his path, then had the fine folks at the Amway Center shut off all of the lights in the building. This revealed some interesting props.

When the lights went out, George's glow in the dark jersey and a glow in the dark ball was revealed. The arena played the music from 'Tron' to set the mood. The dunk itself was solid, if not quite as spectacular as the theatrics.

Though it's not quite as spectacular in execution as some of the Vince Carter and Jason Richardson dunks that were similarly styled, the finish was a good one.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Chase Budinger Windmills

For the final dunk of the first round of dunks in the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Derrick Williams windmilled over a motorcycle. Chase Budinger decided to improve on that dunk ... by removing the motorcycle?

The Houston Rockets forward, after dusting off his shoes, performed one of the most perfunctory dunks you will see in any dunk contest ever as his follow-up to dunking over Diddy in the first round. It really is just a simple windmill that you've seen scores of times in dunk contests and games, but Charles Barkley tried to make it sound better by noting where he leapt from, which wasn't in any way impressive.

If you would like to vote for Budinger doing a simple windmill dunk and making it, you are a sad human, but you can do so by following the instructions here.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Jeremy Evans Brings It With A Double Dunk

Finally, something to get excited about. Jeremy Evans took what JaVale McGee did last year and added his own flavor to it. With Gordon Hayward sitting in a chair in front of the hoop, Evans took two lobs and slammed them both. It sure beat just jumping over something.

This could be the dunk of the night -- it certainly was the best so far. Here's video of Evans' second slam.

Not much flash or major props, just solid dunking. It took him two tries, sure, with the first coming close, but it was totally worth it. If Evans doesn't pass up Budinger, who seemed to have the best first dunk of the night, there's no justice in this world.

As a reminder, the fans are doing the voting this year. For more on the process, head over here.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Derrick Williams Windmills Over A Harley

Derrick Williams hasn't had a terrific rookie season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the No. 2 overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft is probably the highest profile name in the dunk contest due to his college career. He made one hell of an entrance, unexpectedly coming in on the back of a motorcycle driven by the T'Wolves mascot. Said motorcycle was then parked under the basket so he could dunk over it.

Less impressive than a Kia? Yes, almost certainly, but Blake Griffin didn't unexpectedly ride in on the Kia. Additionally, a Harley Davidson is inherently better than a Kia. Williams missed his first two attempts at a windmill dunk over the bike, but he converted on his third attempt.

Fans might penalize him for missing twice, but his first dunk was certainly more impressive than Jeremy Evans', and Paul George also needed multiple attempts.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Paul George Dunks Over Roy Hibbert With Some Help

Paul George brought out two players to assist his dunk, saying he needed one guy to pass and another to jump over. We've seen plenty of Slam Dunk Contest participants jump over players, kids and cars, but George decided to up the ante by bringing out 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert. Chase Budinger jumped over P. Diddy, so George needed to step it up a bit.

It took him a bit of time to get warmed up, but after two misses he finally got over Hibbert. Video of the dunk is below.

Of course, it looks like George used his hand to push off in an effort to clear Hibbert. Understandable, but that and his two failed attempts took a bit of the thunder out of his first dunk.

As a reminder, the fans are doing the voting this year. For more on the process, head over here.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Jeremy Evans Dunks Wearing A Camera

Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz is the most anonymous of the mostly anonymous field of dunkers in the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest. His first dunk of the night will likely not inspire many people to figure out who he is.

Evans, wearing a camera, threw the ball up high from just inside the three-point line, then grabbed it from just above the rim and slammed it home on a reverse. Evans then proceeded to swing from the rim, presumably to convince all of the relatively unimpressed fans in attendance and on their couches that his dunk was not relatively unimpressive. That did not work.

On the bright side, Evans has two more dunks to go and he might yet make something of his opportunity to escape the obscurity of playing sparingly for the Jazz. I guess that's a bright side, anyway.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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Slam Dunk Contest 2012 Video: Chase Budinger Dunks Over P. Diddy

Chase Budinger kicked off the Slam Dunk contest with a fantastic reference to Woody Harrelson and White Men Can't Jump, with an obviously staged skit that was made to look spontaneous. TNT analyst Kenny Smith came out with a mic and asked P. Diddy about his son and his new TV channel, before asking about his favorite basketball movie. Diddy answered with the Harrleson classic and Budinger appeared in a white tee and a backwards baseball cap.

Budinger, determined to prove to Diddy that white men can, in fact, jump, decided to jump over P. Diddy. The rap mogul was kind enough to throw the ball up to Budinger with a no-look, over the shoulder pass. Budinger jumped over Diddy and threw it down in impressive fashion.

For a first dunk, this was a good one for Budinger. He involved a celebrity and did something cool without bringing his best, leaving something in reserve for later rounds.

For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

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VIDEO: TNT's Slam Dunk Contest Promo Was Pretty Great

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NBA Slam Dunk Contest: Competition Has Long History Of Memorable Moments

The 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest takes place Saturday night in Orlando. Here is a look at some past memories.

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NBA Dunk Contest: Paul George Borrows Jam From People's Champ

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VIDEO: KIA Tries To Dunk Over Blake Griffin

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NBA All-Star Game 2012: Dunk Contest Champion To Be Determined By Twitter

There isn't much that a player can do at the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest during the NBA's All-Star Weekend that we haven't seen before. Knowing that, the league is tweaking the way that the competition's winner is determined, deciding to shake things up this year by using Twitter to name a champion for the first time ever.

Tune in to TNT at 8 pm (ET) to vote for the new Sprite Slam Dunk champion by tweeting the hashtag #SpriteSlam with the last name of your favorite dunker. This year, there are no judges for the contest––just fans like you who will determine the outcome by tweeting. Fans will also be able to vote via text message and on NBA.com

Fans will also be able to follow along with Dunk Contest participants on Twitter as they compete. They can follow the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George (@King24George), Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams (@RealDWill7), the Houston Rockets’ Chase Budinger (@CBudinger) and Jeremy Evans (@JeremyEvans40) from the Utah Jazz, all of whom will provide updates as the contest progresses.

Unlike previous incarnations, there will only be one round of dunks this year, with each participant getting three attempts. In years past, the Slam Dunk Contest featured multiple rounds in which judges and fans scored the competitors' attempts and whittled down the contestants until a winner was crowned.

The 2012 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest starts at 8 p.m. ET on TNT on Feb. 25 at Amway Center in Orlando.

For more on the 2012 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest and the rest of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game festivities, stay with this SB Nation stream.

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NBA Dunk Contest: Iman Shumpert Injury Opens Spot For Jeremy Evans

The annual NBA Slam Dunk Contest was already lacking a bit of luster when the original contestants were announced, but the latest reports indicate that the participants are changing. An injury to New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert has opened a spot for Jeremy Evans, a second-year pro for the Utah Jazz.

It might not necessarily be for the better, but it can't get much worse. Evans is probably the furthest thing away from a household name that the NBA could find, considering he's averaging fewer than two points per game while playing less than any of his Jazz teammates.

Those types of statistics don't matter in the dunk contest, though. Evans has shown quite a few times in game situations that when he has the ball, it's likely going to be slammed through the cylinder -- even if he has to jump six feet and through a defending Gerald Wallace to do so.

For more coverage of 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend, stay with this stream.

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NBA Dunk Contest Lineup Could Bring Jeremy Lin To All-Star Weekend

The Dunk Contest may be dying, but it's not dead. Perhaps Jeremy Lin can inject some life into it? The lineup for this year's contest in Orlando hasn't been announced officially, but ESPN's Marc Stein broke the news Thursday morning.

The four participants will be...

• Chase Budinger of the Houston Rockets
• Derrick Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves
• Paul George of the Indiana Pacers

...and, most notably

• Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks

Shumpert on his own isn't a household name, and none of these guys are. Derrick Williams was the number two pick in the 2011 Draft, but he's still fairly anonymous in the NBA. But the bet is that Shumpert will enlist the services of his famous teammate, Lin, to be a passer for him. And suddenly it won't matter how famous everyone else is. The dunk contest has struggled in recent years, at least until Blake Griffin made headlines at last year's edition in Los Angeles. Now Griffin has said he won't be dunking and the NBA turns its eyes to four, relatively-unknown younger players. But if Jeremy Lin is really on board, it's a safe bet that NBA fans will watch regardless. So at least they've got that goin' for them!