The 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was a huge improvement over the previous year which was most likely the work professional dunk competition ever. JaVale McGee, Demar Derozan and Serge Ibaka got the crowd on their feet with jaw-dropping dunk after dunk. The favorite and champion, Blake Griffin, was alright, but he had the worst night of the four competitors.
Still, in the end he was the one holding the first place trophy. Why? Because he jumped over a car sponsored by NBA partner Kia Motors.
Now, it was a nice dunk; don?t get me wrong, but any top-notch high-flier can pull off jumping over the short end of a car. JaVale McGee performed dunks never tried before and Serge Ibaka slammed it home from the free throw line as a big man, but thanks to Kenny Smith hyping up the building, Griffin was the last one standing.
According to Sports Business Daily, Griffin?s flashy outing did more than win himself a trophy. Kia, Sprite and State Farm, all partners of the NBA, each scored the highest awareness levels they?ve received in the last five years.
Now, being in LA, being an in-game dunking fiend, it isn?t unreasonable to believe the judging was a bit biased toward Griffin with the obvious potential to help out the sponsors which ended up happening. Despite the sponsors loving the dunk contest results, the NBA fan base wasn?t too happy. Anyone intelligent enough to realize Griffin?s dunk wasn?t the greatest ever knew he didn?t deserve to win.
Twitter exploded with people crying conspiracy and for good reason. Blake Griffin?s windmill slam off the side of the backboard got a higher score than Demar Derozan?s between-the-legs dunk off the side of the backboard: total bias. Here is every dunk for the contest, check them out yourself.
Hopefully the fan disgust of the recent dunk contests will trigger a change in how the NBA runs the highlight of All-Star weekend.
David Daniels is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a Syndicated Writer. Follow him on Twitter.
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