Awwwww daaaaamn!

That overblown reaction can mean only one thing: NBA All-Star Weekend!

Things got off to a fine start Friday night as the Rookies continued to play the Washington Generals to the Sophomores' Harlem Globetrotters, losing by an approximate score of 267-213. The Rookies were led by the Cavaliers' Daniel Gibson, who drilled a game-record 11 three-balls for 33 points. ¡En fuego! I liked seeing Boobie shave an (all) star into his head as well - nice touch.

The real festivities are Saturday night, taking place as I write this. The NBA continued its laughable effort to involve the WNBA with whatever the first contest was called where they have an NBA player, a retired player, and a WNBA player team up to do...something. I cannot and will not understand the rules of this game, though it was good to see David Robinson out there knocking down threes.

Chris Paul and Deron Williams showed pretty clearly why they're the two top young point guards in the NBA with a duel in the Skills Competition. Hometown hero Paul made the finals, where Williams won with a course-record performance.


The Dunk Contest is the marquee event, as always. As fashionable as it has become to pick on this event, it's still pretty fun to watch. Why all the haters? It won't ever get back to its late-'80's heyday, but it's still a fun event. I'm pulling for Jamario Moon, who I was a fan of last year when he played for the Albany Patroons. I'm happy to see him break into the Association and be successful. Onto the dunks:

First Round
Moon: Serious athleticism here, with an impressive self-alley-oop on dunk one and near-free-throw line jump with help from Jason Kapono for his second effort. 90 points seems about right.

Gerald Green: How is this guy leading Moon? He opened with the gimmicky "birthday cake" dunk, where he blew out a candle on a cupcake sitting atop the rim on a dunk and then did a fairly standard windmill off a lob from a teammate. No reason he should be leading Moon with 91 here.

Rudy Gay: Thanks for coming out, man. The first dunk was uncreative and pretty much iced his chances. Loved the behind-the-hoop bounce off the support from the teammate - one of the night's best.

Dwight Howard: Wow. See the title of this post? Yeah. That was absolutely tremendous. First up he bounces one off the backboard and dunks it. The back of the backboard, that is. Ridiculous. Then he puts on a Superman cape and puts home an alley-oop from a teammate, jumping roughly 24 feet high and throwing it downward into the bucket. A well-deserved 100.


Finals
I'm still bothered that Green is here instead of Moon, but we'll get through this. Howard must somehow have two dunks better than those in his back pocket, which I can't imagine.

Green (first): I picked on him earlier, but nice opening salvo: between the legs in mid-air off a teammate's bounce. Looked 9-ish to me, maybe 9.5. I love the grade inflation of the Slam Dunk contest. If someone got up there and did a straight one-hand dunk and barely got it down, would that be a "1"?

Howard (first): I totally forgot about him putting that sticker of himself on the board last year. This guy must have a lot of free time for ideas. Getting back to 2008, I'm running out of words for awesome here. Somehow he jumps, takes a self-bounce alley-oop, bounces the ball off the backboard in mid-air with his left hand and dunks it with his right. I didn't even understand it the first time. Another 10.


Green: Green socks=white flag. Note: Dr. J. later makes an overly long and somber speech where he says this is harder than it looks, which is pretty much the opposite of what you want to do in the Slam Dunk contest.

Howard: Your two-time champion. Denied a chance to raise the board to 12 feet, Howard grabs the ball off a mini-Magic-hoop that Jameer Nelson stuck on the bankboard, windmills it, and puts it home. Dwight Howard is the man.

An entertaining evening, though once again fewer reaction shots from the players' bench. They should at least have a picture-in-picture for the All-Stars courtside going nuts.