Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

[RaychelSnr]

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Do you even dunk, bro? King James does.

Lebron put on an incredible post-practice display with his annual "dunk contest" (see above), reminding fans just how exciting the upcoming All-Star week extravaganza could be. The NBA's Sprite slam dunk contest hasn't fallen away completely in popularity, but some major brand-name talent has been missing in recent years. Thankfully, stars like John Wall, Damian Lillard, and Paul George have joined this year's field of contestants for the February 15 showdown.

But what if LeBron joined the actual competition? Why not have the NBA's most emotion-stirring player get involved with the contest that highlights the game's most powerful play.

Sound Off: Does LeBron James have the skill and creativity to win a slam dunk contest?

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[ThreeKing]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

I honestly don't get why he doesn't get in the dunk contest. His star power alone would give him the benefit of the doubt on his dunks. Kind of like how Jordan "beat" Dominique in '88. lol

[JODYE]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

More of LeBron trying to get attention.

He did this last year around this time in Pre-Game warmups. He knows what he is doing.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

Injury's man....they've robbed us of actual story lines this year

[VDusen04]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

To echo what I stated in the off-court forum, I'm baffled as to why this short practice video is receiving all this attention (was the number four top story on ESPN.com yesterday). The dunks showcased almost all boiled down to being relatively standard tomahawk flushes. The flashiest he got was putting down a double pump reverse dunk which again, isn't exactly ground breaking. James has spent countless layup lines doing way more impressive dunks without those clips going viral like the one in the original post. What's the deal?

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All that said, I think LeBron James could win a dunk contest. I believe I would have been more interested to see him compete as a 23 or 24 year old though. If he pushed himself to attempt a free throw line dunk with a twist (fully behind the line and with more flare than Ibaka, or double pumped) I would have appreciated his appearance. But if he were to have entered only to complete the types of dunks seen in the Phoenix practice video, I probably would have been a little resentful of his victory, since it'd seem to have been more about the passes and his name than the creativity of the dunks themselves.

[emelki1968]

He needs the attention, that is all. I honestly don't think thoses dunks are that amazing. Most of them are the same type of dunk.It is just power, there is not elasticity, imagination, variety...
Now that everybody is posting the video (what a coincidence, a few days before the slum-dunk contest), can we please talk about dunkers with a little more imagination? Thank you.

[lilteapot]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

Nice dunks but we've seen these from him a million times and they wouldn't win a dunk contest. Also as long as it's judged by fan voting, nobody should want to do it as a matter of fact.

[Vni]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

Why people make this such a big deal?

[CatMan72]

LeBron doesn't skip the dunk contest because he's afraid of getting hurt... he skips it because he's afraid of getting beat by some relative nobody.

[SteelersFreak]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

These dunks are only impressive because of the passes to himself, passes which he wouldn't be able to do in the dunk contest because the dunk contest isn't held in a practice gym.

[tbook24]

not in the dunk contest = who cares. all of the GREAT ones did it.

[scottyp180]

I am probably in the minority here but I honestly believe that lebron hasn't entered a dunk contest because he is afraid of losing. He is a great dunker, especially in games, but I don't know if he is capable of doing something spectacular in the dunk contest. He does dunks with ease and force but you need creativity and finesse in a dunk contest to win. Whenever I see his warm up dunks I think "thats good but nothing that hasn't been done already". Recent winners like blake griffin, nate robinson, derozen, dwight howard, gerald green all put on a show and performed or attempted some dunks that we either never saw before, never saw in the nba before, or simply weren't expecting.

I don't see lebron being able to live up to the expectations and I think wade had a comment that alluded to this. If lebron entered the dunk contest and performed dunks like these we would be like "ohh...that's it?" He would need to pull some kind of vince carter type of display that blows our minds and anything short of that wouldn't be enough.

[AlexBrady]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

I've never liked the Dunk Contests or Three-Point Shootouts. The All Star Game hasn't been real competitive since 69. The whole weekend needs to be scrapped.

[ggsimmonds]

To echo the thoughts of a few others, LeBron does not enter dunk contests because of insecurity.

LeBron would not fare as well as some would expect because he is a power dunker. That is great in games, but in a dunk contest flare and finesse usually win out. Look at the video, awesome power tomahawks but not particularly creative or flashy.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Sports Daily: LeBron Dunks, But Not For the Fans

Not sure I follow the whole he's afraid of losing theme that some are saying.

Like others have stated, he knows what he's doing and we go thru this every year. Non story/issue to me.