After having Roy Hibbert join this year’s NBA All-Star game, another Indiana Pacer will now be part of All-Star Weekend, as Paul George was selected as one of the contestants for the Slam Dunk competition.
None of the dunkers from last year will be returning, most notably Blake Griffin, Javale McGee, and DeMar DeRozan. This year will have a complete new class of dunkers, with George joining Derrick Williams, Iman Shumpert, and Chase Budinger. Honestly, this class looks pretty disappointing, as there isn’t guys like from last year. Many outlets are already calling this class lackluster with how young it is as well.
But I guess it also increases the chance of George winning. He has my vote because after looking all these guys participating, PG looks like he has a nice advantage with his size and speed. George will also take part in the Rising Stars game, too.
The contest will be different this year, however. There will be no judges, which eliminates one round. Each player has three dunks and the voting will be through NBA.com, Twitter, and texts. I guess we’ll see who wins, but it looks like to me that it comes down to George and Shumpert.
Here’s NBA.com’s take on George to preview the upcoming event.
Related Posts:
- Paul George’s Growth, Dunk Contest Ambitions and Similarity to Michael Finley
- Paul George Has His Fadeaway Blocked by Derrick Rose, but Later Drives for the Dunk
- A Photo of Paul George
- Paul George Isn’t Paying for More Than 10 People to Watch Him Not Play Basketball
- Other People’s Words: Holly MacKenzie on Paul George Coming Up Big
Josh Dhani is a contributor to Eight Points Nine Seconds and owns and operates the all-sports blog, Footbasket. On Twitter, you can follow him @JoshDhani.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, if it is being decided by fan voting, we already know Shumpert will run away with votes just being from NYC alone, UNLESS someone else comes through with something undeniably outstanding.
Bring it PG!!
Should come down to George and Williams.
Agreed though. Last year’s class was first rate. This year it looks like this is all they could get.
Hate the contests from the last years…And the voting system is sh*t. Blake could have done an airball layup and still would have won it.
@jason Agree. George needs to do something sick. Else the winner is Shumpert, cause he’s from the knicks…
and by slam dunk contest you mean popularity contest
Def. Agree George dosen’t stand a chance unless he gets Bird out there to assist, even though i know PG’s gunna have best dunk..
Look out for Buddinger, he’s got MAD hops.
It’ll be nice to see PG out there, always nice to be able to root for a Pacer in one of these events (and hopefully he’s more like Fred Jones than Johnathon Bender), but I predict that, with the voting being 100% “fan”, that Shumpurt will win comfortably.
Last years dunkclass was “first rate” on paper, but was probably one of the worst I ever watched. I wasn’t impressed with Griffins winning dunk, or the dunks that the “NBA’s most athletic” in demar derozan and shannon brown were a freaking joke.
This year looks sad on paper (lacking stardom, and veteran presence). but I’m expecting Chase Budinger to pull a Brent Barry and destroy the crowd, Chase vs PG in the end, watch.