Loved this contest, made me LOL!!!

In fairness, none of those (unless I missed one in the Premiership – I know they happen like clockwork in Italy) have had a full on ref betting / potentially fixing game scandal like the NBA. The NBA’s refs, and the “stars get calls” mentality of the league, is something that’s far more pronounced than any other North American team sport.

As for this one… as even the announcers said, Howard was getting a ton of favourable judges’ calls here (and when you can get Kenny Smith to pay attention long enough to notice that, you know it was obvious), and if that rim was 12 feet I’m 6’10″. I’m always going to wonder if Nate Robinson didn’t think, just for a second, about “accidentally” kneeing Howard in the back of the head.

The “theater” part is what I find absurd. If I want “theater” I’ll — guess what? — go to the theater! And if I go to the theater, I’d be damned taken aback to find a basketball competition breaking out.

you do know that the slam dunk contest, along with the three point contest take place on a different day than the actual game? people who went to this event, went because of the contests, and had no reason to expect a game to break out.

for the record, I hate basketball. But fun stuff like this is cool.

(It pains me to no end that *my* league, the old American Basketball Association, started all this crap with the slam dunk contest back in ’76 …)

I think you are taking this way too seriously.

Also it’s a Slam Dunk contest. It’s hardly garbage. It’s a skills competition mixed with theater.

It’s a slam dunk competition. Last year, Dwight Howard dressed as Superman and won, and this year, they added more showman ship to it. And Nate Robinson did his bit as well. Sounds like fun if you’re into the sport.

And that was *before* garbage like the above began, though I guess it’s useful in showing that the people in charge of the “sport’” acknowledge that itheir produce is so inherently boring &/or corrupt (point-shaving referees, anybody?) that it needs tarting up to try to drum up interest from mouth-breathing morons. (See also: Bowl, Super.)