D-Wade lights up Dallas... Again

In last night's NBA All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium, Dwyane Wade turned in his second most impressive performance to receive an MVP award in Dallas. The last time he did it was 2006, when the Miami Heat came back from a 2-0 deficit in the NBA Finals to win the championship on the Mavericks' home court. Of course the stakes weren't nearly as high this time around, but I'm sure seeing Wade's face on the world's biggest JumboTron left the hundreds of thousands of Mavericks fans in attendance with a bad taste in their mouths. A bad taste that they've been trying to get rid of by eating Texas shaped sirloin steaks smothered in A1 sauce for the past three and a half years.

Although I haven't watched that many All-Star Games, last night's was by far the best I've ever seen. Typically there are a lot of highlight worthy plays, but it often ends up in a blowout, usually at the hands of the West. Last night had the usual amazing plays, but it was actually close throughout the whole game and competitive down the stretch. The ending could have been more spectacular, as last second fouls caused both teams to try to win it at the line. And Melo's potential game winner lacked suspense, as you could tell it was a brick the moment it left his hands.

Despite some great plays by several players on both teams, Wade and LeBron clearly stole the show. In addition to an alley-oop to himself off the glass, Wade had some jaw-dropping assists for LeBron who made Wade's set-ups look even better with spectacular finishes. Wade also found Dwight on a fast break for an unreal oop. Dallas native Chris Bosh and Deron Williams, who grew up near Dallas, both turned in entertaining performances as well.

Even the half-time show was worth watching. I can't really handle Shakira's overly produced (read Timbaland produced) peculiar pop music, but, y'know, she's easy on the eyes. As for Alicia Keys, she's both easy on the eyes and an incredible musician, singer, and performer. Her spoken word stuff at the beginning was sorta weird, but she killed it otherwise.

Lastly, take a moment to watch last night's Top 10 Plays. They don't get much better than these.

Lamest Dunk Contest Ever

From the look of the above video, the D-League's Dunk Contest from All-Star Weekend seems like it was actually worth watching. That's a nasty dunk by Dar Tucker going over 7-footer Brian Butch and the crowd looks way into it. Throughout most of the NBA's contest, you heard more sighs of disappointment than cheers from the crowd. The NBA might as well air the D-League Slam Dunk Contest next year. It would at least give the D-League some exposure and the players would be grateful to have a little bit of the spotlight.

Last night's Sprite Slam Dunk Contest was a total bust. To Nate Robinson's credit, he actually showed up and did some nice dunks. But if Nate Robinson won it for the third time, it should tell you something about the sorry state of the Dunk Contest. DeMar Derozan had his moments too, but he basically gave up in the finals with his two-handed windmill from about 4 feet in front of the foul line. Shannon Brown and Gerald Wallace? They might as well have not even showed up. Pathetic.

LeBron, where you at?

Video via Hardwood Paroxysm

Lady Lakers to fill in for missing NBA All-Stars

It has been reported from several super trust worthy news sources that the Lady Lakers of, uh, Michigan will replace the NBA players who will sit out this Sunday night for the NBA All-Star Game in Dallas at 7 PM EST on TNT. Commissioner David Stern attempted to find NBA players to replace the All-Stars who will miss Sunday's game, but apparently every player he contacted had already planned a vacation and/or told him to "get the fuck out [they] face with that All-Star Weekend bullshit." Stern had hoped to have the following players to replace these All-Stars:

Denver's Chauncey Billups for New Orleans' Chris Paul (injured knee)

The Clippers' Chris Kaman for Portland's Brandon Roy (injured hamstring)

New York's David Lee for Philadelphia's Allen Iverson (attending to sick daughter)

Dallas Maverick/New Beginnings Retirement Home resident Jason Kidd for the Lakers' Kobe Bryant (injured ankle, broken finger, back spasms, obsessive work ethic, delusions of grandeur, unhealthy Michael Jordan fetish, etc.)

The Lady Lakers seem poised to take the court at Cowboys Stadium in front of the largest crowd assembled in basketball history with more than 90,000 expected. When reporters asked if they were ready to perform against the NBA's elite in front of a record breaking crowd, they responded in unison with a resounding "Duh!"

More on the Slam Dunk Contest: No LeBron unless Shaq has his way

This is far from breaking news, but LeBron James' name was not included in the list of participants in this year's NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest. In the video above, LeBron said he was "preliminary putting [his] name in the 2010 Dunk Contest." He also thought Dwight and Nate had "great charismatic" in last year's contest. That's some sound English, LeBron.

So why won't LeBron enter the Dunk Contest? Is he afraid losing would hurt his image/brand? Has last year's loss to the Magic in the Eastern Conference Championship made him so focused on winning a championship that he can't concern himself with fluff like the Slam Dunk Contest? Has Cavaliers brass talked him out of entering the contest to avoid injury? Is this all just a big hoax to make the crowd lose their collective minds when 'Bron steps from the sidelines and rips off his yellow cardigan to reveal a Cavs jersey, ready to compete? Probably not the latter, but here's to hoping. It would certainly breathe life into a contest that was once star-studded with names like Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, and Dominique Wilkins. To Dwight Howard's credit, he has done his part in reviving the contest the past two years.

The NBA needs to bring back big name superstars to the Slam Dunk Contest. They seem to forget that the lack of superstars is what killed the contest in the late 90s. Sure, it's good to get some up-and-comers in there, but bringing in superstars is what makes the contest appealing to those who aren't die-hard fans. During the 2000 All-Star Break, the Slam Dunk Contest returned after a two year hiatus, and it seemed the NBA was finally bringing it back the right way. The contest included stars like Vince Carter and his cousin Tracy McGrady (who were Raptors teammates at the time) and Vince Carter turned in what might be the contest's greatest performance of all time. Unfortunately, the contest quickly lost steam in the early 2000s, despite great performances by Jason Richardson and other non-household names. How can the NBA make this contest something NBA fans and non-NBA fans alike look forward to year after year?

Enter Shaquille O'Neal. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Shaq has promised to talk LeBron into entering the contest but, as his manager (?), he will only allow him to enter if Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant, and another big name comes back out. So how will Shaq convince LeBron and three other stars to come back to the contest? Shaq hopes he can get a big cash money prize (that shouldn't be a problem with his bloated contract), with half of the money going to relief efforts in Haiti and the other half going to the winner. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Let's hope Shaq can pull it off, for the good of the Dunk Contest and as another way to help ease the devastation in Haiti.

Those slated to actually participate in the Dunk Contest (unless Shaq gets his way) include Shannon Brown (it's official!), Gerald Wallace, and much to NBA fans' dismay, returning champion Nate Robinson. The fourth contestant will be the winner of the Slam Dunk-In between the Clippers' Eric Gordon and Raptors rookie DeMar Derozan. I've been hoping all season long to see Shannon Brown in the contest and Gerald Wallace was another player I had hoped to see, even though he was already in it back in 2003.

As for Nate, he's already won the Dunk Contest twice, and at 5'9", is there really anything else he can do that he hasn't already done? I hope he proves me wrong, but I just can't imagine a player under 6 feet ever topping 5'7" Spud Webb's legendary performance in 1986.

Shannon Brown dunks on his own teammate, also some news on the Slam Dunk Contest

After a Kobe Bryant miss, Shannon Brown takes off to ridiculous heights with a put-back dunk. Brown's unsuspecting teammate Josh Powell goes up for the rebound and receives an unlikely posterization by his own teammate. Shannon Brown's ups are absolutely ridiculous. I said before the season that he ought to be in the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest after seeing this dunk from the preseason, and it seems that my wish just might come true. Apparently Nike may have mistakenly revealed Brown as a contestant on it's Basketball Blog, as they have begun promoting a Shannon Brown Nike iD Slam Dunk Design Contest. Ooops. Contestants will design their own colorway of the new Kobe V for Shannon to sport in the contest.

In other Slam Dunk Contest news, LeBron is still being noncommittal on whether he will participate after proclaiming he would during last year's contest. LeBron's being pretty lame about this. I wonder if he'd walk off the court to the locker room without shaking the winner's hand if he lost.

As for the other participants in the contest, the Raptors' DeMar DeRozan and the Clippers' Eric Gordon will face off in the first ever NBA All-Star Slam Dunk-In during halftime of the Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam (I think that's the Rookie vs. Sophomore game, but maybe it's something else). They will each get two minutes to throw down two dunks and the winner will be determined by fans texting. The winner will get to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest.

Props to J.E. Skeets of Ball Don't Lie