Superman Dramatic NBA Slam Dunk Contest 09

NBA All-Star Game 2009 in Phoenix was over around 2 weeks ago. Suddenly I felt of writing something about it especially about the Sprite Slam Dunk competition as it was the most dramatic, interesting and full of entertainment ever since I started to pay attention on this contest about a decade ago.

There were 4 participants for this contest this year

1. JR Smith from Denver Nuggets who replaced Rudy Gay from Memphis Grizzlies as the latter was injured before the all-star weekend started.
2. Rudy Fernandez from Portland Trail Blazers who is a rookie from Spain.
3. Nate Robinson from New York Knicks, 2006 slam dunk champion with only 5-9 of height.
4. Dwight Howard from Orlando Magic, defending champion for this competition.

Nothing special about the 1st round. Everybody played safe. The dramatic moment only started in the 2nd round when Dwight Howard walked into a specially prepared phone booth outside the court and then walked out with a Superman's red cape and Superman's music accompanied! The audience including some NBA superstars almost went crazy with this surprising and creative act!

Source: NBA.com
[Superman Howard came out from phone booth with Superman's cape]

The Superman idea actually came along in last year's contest where Dwight Howard with his Magic's blue road jersey similar to Superman's costume blue color suddenly wore a Superman's cape and then made a dunk jumping from free throw line. Although he couldn't reach the hoop, but luckily the ball still made into the net. That dunk brought him the champion.

[Dwight Howard champion dunk in Slam Dunk contest 2008]

This year Dwight further embedded Superman's character into his dunk show. Instead of flying far as last year, Dwight chose to fly high as Superman! After mimicked Superman changing scene, He then dunked on a hoop about a feet higher than a normal NBA hoop. Although it was an ordinary two-hand dunk, but I think his efforts, creativity and the height of the hoop had given the audience as well as the judges a very good impression. Thus he won perfect of 50 points for that.

As expected Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson gone into final. Now it was Nate's turn to show! He first came out with his all-green Kryptonate t-shirt. Yeah! Combination of the word Krypton and Nate! Even his New York team jersey, his arm band, shoes and basketball were all in green color.

[The Krypto-Nate]

Some might think, why green? New York Knicks suppose to be blue! Maybe just to attract more attention? No, it is wrong! If you know Superman's story in details, Superman is most vulnerable to green Kryptonite, a mineral from planet Krypton where Superman origin from. Nate's idea was to treat himself as a kryptonite that could weaken or even nullify Superman's super power! In this case, Dwight Howard was the Superman and Nate wished to defeat him! The word Kryptonate was chosen to mimic the word Kryptonite!

Wasn't that creative? A well-known Superman's story could be applied to a slam dunk contest?! Do you ever think of that? Isn't that amazing? That's why I said this year's contest was the most creative and dramatic ever!

[Kryptonate over Superman!]

Nate then invited Dwight to wear his Superman's cape again and be his final dunk's prop. Dwight showed his gentlemanship by standing under and facing the hoop. Nate carried his green basketball, made a run and jumped over Dwight Howard to make a one-hand dunk! Kabummm!! A 5-foot-9 guard springboarded a 6-foot-11 center to dunk! Can you believe it? Yeah, the Krypto-Nate really could win over the Superman-Howard!

[5-foot-6 Spud Webb dunk]

At the end of the competition, Nate Robinson won against Dwight Howard with 52% of fan's votes! He was declared as the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest Champion 2009! This is his second title. The first one was won in year 2006 when he leaped over Spud Webb, a 5-foot-6 former Atlanta Hawks point guard and also 1986 NBA slam dunk contest winner to make a dunk. Both Spud Webb and Nate Robinson are among the shortest (below 6 feet) players who won the slam dunk contest in NBA history.

[Nate Robinson jumped over Spud Webb to win 2006 slam dunk champion]

Detail stories: http://www.nba.com/allstar2009