Dwight Howard makes All-Star weekend Super

By: Justin Jacobs

I’ll be the first to admit that the NBA Dunk Contest has stunk the last couple of years. It felt like we had gotten to a point where we had seen just about everything. Especially after the year when Vince Carter put on that air show back in 2000. However, as a creature of habit I grabbed a beer on Saturday and sat down to watch another dunk contest in hopes that I may see something completely new and cool.

What I didn’t expect to see was a seven footer saving the Dunk Contest from mediocrity. You see people over seven feet don’t have a problem dunking obviously, but they do however have trouble hanging in the air for any length of time and doing something that looks graceful. I guess that’s what makes Dwight Howard special. Here are some highlights if you missed out on the festivities.

It’s always amazing, and a little unnerving, to see a seven foot tall man leap into the air like he was Spud Webb. The thing that really makes Dwight Howard’s performance stand out in my mind was personality.

For the most part if you are over seven feet all and in the NBA, you just don’t have much of a personality much in the same way an android does not have much personality. Take Tim Duncan for instance, is he a human or cybernetic robot sent from the future to destroy us? You just can’t tell because he shows no emotion… ever. Tim Duncan would make one hell of a poker player. The exception to this rule has always been Shaq. When the Big Diesel came into the NBA he was a rapping, break-dancing, (bad) acting seven footer who also happened to play basketball. You won’t find the big guy break dancing anymore but he is still one of the coolest guys in the league.

Lately however we’ve started to see an influx of big guys in the NBA who also seem to be pretty cool dudes. Chris Bosh plays center for the Toronto Raptors. One of the side effects of playing sports in Canada is that no one in or outside of Canada will actually care about you, as an athlete and as a human being. Now I’ve been told that Chris Bosh is a pretty good basketball player, but it was only when I saw this youtube clip that Chris Bosh became an actually person I should take note of instead of a mythical Canadian creature that also happened to play basketball.

Too add to the ever increasing list of bigs in the NBA who compare favorably to Hillary Clinton in the personality department, there is Greg Oden, the number one pick in last years NBA draft. Greg suffered a season ending injury… before the season actually started (bummer), but that didn’t stop him from showing the world he could be a star.

Now what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Probably nothing. I just find is reassuring that some of the league’s best, young, talent actually have winning personalities. As David Stern kept mentioning over the All-Star weekend, the league is in great shape. I couldn’t agree more. Just don’t tell Tim Duncan, or you may be TERMINATED!