Earlier this week, the NBA ruled that Dwight Howard could not raise the rim in the dunk contest to twelve feet because “changing the height of the rim, while easily done mid-contest with the help of hydraulics, clashes with their intent to apply as many standard NBA rules to All-Star Weekend contests as possible.” You know, because this is much more entertaining. This was followed up today by the news that, despite being injured, Kobe Bryant must participate in Sunday’s All Star game or face a one game suspension since he played in the Laker’s final game before the break. It seems that no one cares about the NBA as it is, let alone the All-Star game so why go ahead and enforce this obscure, arbitrary rule at the risk, minimal as it is, that it would injure arguably the game’s best player? Wouldn’t it be something to see Kobe Bryant aggravate the injury during the game thus forcing him to miss significant time (he’s already delaying inevitable surgery) which would all but destroy the championship hopes of a team in a huge market? When did David Stern turn into Bud Selig?
The NBA Takes All-Star Weekend Way Too Seriously
Posted by Harvey Bars · February 15th, 2008 · 5 Comments
Tags: Harvey Bars · NBA
5 responses so far ↓
1 dwight4prezz // Feb 15, 2008 at 1:49 pm
You know, I almost think not raising the rim works out better for Dwight. Because playing on height is the obvious thing to do, which means not all that impressive for fans (who will be the ones voting). But now he really has to pump up the creativity and agility, which he actually seems to be doing — he’s prepping some crazy dunks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIz7sYjp1Sc
The one stunt he does, the mid-air, bounce-off-the-backboard, left-hand-right-hand dunk, that’s sick.
[Reply]
2 Harvey Bars // Feb 15, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Howard’s an absolute beast, but he’s so big, that people aren’t as amazed at the stuff he pulls off, where as Nate Robinson can miss 58 dunks and still beat Andre Iguodala because he’s 3′7”.
[Reply]
3 dwight4prezz // Feb 15, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Right, but his size is exactly the reason why those dunks are impressive — it takes so much more to move a 6′7″-270-pound frame in the air with agility than it does a shorter person.
[Reply]
4 Harvey Bars // Feb 15, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Sadly, dunk contest judges tend to base their score more on aesthetics than than on physics.
[Reply]
5 Buda Rico // Feb 15, 2008 at 3:24 pm
a 1-game suspension for Kobe is kind of ridiculous. What if he hurt himself today? David Stern has some serious Little Man complex going.
[Reply]
Leave a Comment