The Postgame Online!!

It took some online viral campaigning and marketing, as well as some flashes of dunk genius from the King himself, but when the NBA announced the participants of the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest today, Paul George (AKA 2Much4You) had officially been named, as well as Houston Rockets’ Chase Budinger, Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie Derrick Williams, and New York Knicks’ rookie Iman Shumpert (his dunk ‘assistant’, Jeremy Lin, was also named/hyped).

So let us start with examples of each competitor’s skill set.

Chase Budinger was the runner-up (to Gerald Henderson) in the McDonald’s All-American High School dunk contest in 2006. His dunks consisted of a one-handed tomahawk (lame), a windmill at full extension (game dunk these days), and a reverse rider underneath the basket (not bad).

As far as Derrick Williams goes, he has the skill and athleticism to participate, as well as some creativity. But I don’t think he has anything in his repertoire that will shock the fans and judges. Below, Williams makes a sweet two-handed 360 on the fast break during his time at Arizona. During a pre-season open practice, he throws down a few nice windmills, including one off the side of the backboard, but nothing I wouldn’t consider to be “in-game dunks”. In the last video, Williams kills a few windmills and pump 360’s that could be pretty-looking in the contest. The question is: does he have the creativity to go beyond what has already been seen, and provide excitement on his dunks?

Iman Shumpert is going to be the favorite to win the dunk contest, specifically because the NBA botched the judging process by allowing online, text, and Twitter voting. So #Linsanity will take over the dunk contest simply because he is the Nash to Shumpert’s 2006 Stoudemire. However, Shumpert has the best chance (besides Paul George) to win this contest based on talent alone. In these highlights from the Impact Basketball lockout league from this past offseason, Shumpert shows off his crazy jumping ability, and his skillful creativity when dunking. This guy has a shot.

But when it comes down to it, the Postgame Online favorite to win the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest is the Indiana Pacers’ Paul “King” George, AKA 2Much4You. Of the other players in the contest, he’s the only one who’s performed more than a one- or two-handed dunk in an NBA game, having put down several alley-oops and, of course, his sick reverse against the New Jersey Nets. Besides that, look at some of the other creative dunks he’s performed in front of a camera, and see what you think, compared to the evidence given for the other contestants.

If you aren’t excited for this dunk contest, whether your team has someone in the contest or not, then you better get your head out of your ass. If nothing else, Derrick Williams will be exciting, and Shumpert and George are going to light up the contest. I have a few ideas of my own, and wish I could give the suggestions to Paul George, but until then, I’ll let my good friends over at Team Flight Brothers show you 19 dunks that have never been done in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (besides Werm’s “Lob Scoop Reverse”, which DeMar DeRozan DESTROYED last year, calling it the “Showstopper”).

I would personally pick Special FX’s behind-the-back 360, Young Hollywood’s out-the-hand windmill elbow dunk, Air Bama’s elbow alley-oop OVER someone, any dunk involving JusFly’s cartwheel (windmill, between the legs, etc.), JusFly’s under both legs (with or without the Dubble Up), and especially TDub’s 540 reverse windmill, “Dubble Up” (out-the-hand between-the-legs OVER someone), or “Dubble Up X” (out-the-hand reverse pump over someone).

This year, the Slam Dunk Contest changes formats, switching to only one round (instead of two), allowing three dunks per contestant, and, for the first time, letting the fans completely decide the winner through online, text, and Twitter voting. Unfortunately, this means that Shumpert will probably have the advantage (unfairly) due to #Linsanity taking over the NBA (and the world), thus causing multi-texts and -tweets to come in voting just for Lin. However, if Paul George puled off ANY three of the dunks listed above, he’d earn 50’s from a regularly-judging crowd.

Also, I’d like to see a Vince Carter-styled one-handed 360 elbow dunk, a reverse 360 between the legs (as he did in the workout video above), or something we truly have never seen before.

I’m excited to hear that the Indiana Pacers finally have a representative in the dunk contest, for the first time since (my then-favorite Pacer) Fred Jones won in 2004. To close this post, let’s take a look at Freddie’s perfect winning dunk from eight years ago, that pushed him to beat Jason Richardson: an off-the-bounce, full-extension 360 jam.

A ton of luck to Paul George as he and the Pacers move forward in the next few games before the All-Star break, and much luck to him during the “Rising Stars” game and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Thanks for reading, and have a great day.