Chapter 1083 The most luxurious slam dunk contest in history
"Walter Wang Zelin announced his participation in the dunk contest? Is today April Fool's Day?"
As expected, after Wang Zelin announced his decision to participate in the dunk contest, fans initially cast doubtful eyes on him. But when they saw Wang Zelin personally confirming it, basketball fans around the world became excited.
That night, the entire North American sports circle was full of news reports about him.
At this time, not many people are paying attention to the strong dialogue between the Lakers and the Pacers tonight... Even if Kobe scores 33 points tonight and even hits a three-pointer at the last minute, it will be difficult to win the game.
occupy a place in the news headlines afterwards.
The only one to blame is that he and the Lakers were unlucky tonight. An MVP-level player participated in the slam dunk contest. This is an event that has not happened in many years.
Moreover, this is also the first time in NBA history that yellow players have participated in the slam dunk contest. Facts have proved that yellow players are not limited to technical activities in the NBA. They are equally capable.
Regardless of whether Wang Zelin can win the Slam Dunk Contest championship trophy in the end, his willingness to compete is enough to make this Slam Dunk Contest annals.
In the history of the NBA, it has never happened that a three-year MVP winner has participated in the dunk contest.
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Wang Zelin is going to participate in the dunk contest, which makes all fans very excited.
Fans who like Zelin are eager to see Wang Zelin's explosive performance in the dunk contest; fans who hate him are also very excited because they hope to witness a superstar overturning in the dunk contest.
In their opinion, Wang Zelin's behavior in participating in the dunk contest was very similar to Jordan's participation in the three-point contest. It was most likely that he was influenced by external public opinion and made such a stupid decision.
It is true that in the game between the Hawks and the Celtics, Wang Zelin completed two actual free throws that are worthy of being recorded in history. It is not an exaggeration to call him the strongest dunk player in actual combat.
But the All-Star Shooting Contest is different from actual combat. The former is purely a show and has little to do with the players' true strength.
However, the NBA has never lacked all kinds of birds and beasts. They can't do anything else, but dunking is definitely a leverage.
So no matter which group of people, this year's slam dunk contest has become very worth watching because of Wang Zelin's participation.
This may be the first time in history that the league only announced one person to participate in the slam dunk contest, and the popularity and discussion of the slam dunk contest directly caught up with the All-Star game.
The dunk contest, which was originally just a pre-dinner snack, became a hot topic as the incident continued to unfold.
At 10 o'clock in the morning on the 19th, Zach LaVine, the winner of the last All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, and Aaron Gordon, the runner-up, also announced that they wanted to sign up for this year's Slam Dunk Contest.
In the 2016 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the peerless rivalry between LaVine and Gordon is still vivid in my mind. Its excitement is not inferior to any previous slam dunk contest, and it is enough to compete with Carter's in the millennium and Jordan's in the last century.
Comparable.
After the dunk contest ended last year, LaVine, who successfully defended his title and won his second dunk contest championship, once hinted that he would most likely not participate in individual competitions again in the future.
Therefore, everyone in this year's dunk contest originally focused on last year's Gordon. After all, Gordon's performance last year was equally brilliant. In the minds of many fans, his dunk over the mascot was even more valuable.
Past LaVine's free throw line.
If it weren't for his encounter with LaVine that pushed Gordon to any slam dunk contest since the millennium, he would have been absolutely capable of winning the championship.
This has led to many fans this year actually looking at this slam dunk contest with the idea of hoping to see Gordon realize his dream.
The result was unexpected. Wang Zelin's sudden declaration instantly broke everyone's original plan.
LaVine, who originally planned not to participate in Dunk University, changed his mind instantly after hearing the news.
He held the idea that if he couldn't defeat Wang Zelin on the frontal battlefield, he would beat Wang Zelin in the dunk contest, so he resolutely submitted an application to the league to participate.
Gordon also has the same idea. After all, Wang Zelin is the best player in the league. If he can defeat LaVine and Wang Zelin at the same time in this slam dunk contest, I believe his name Aaron Gordon will definitely go down in history.
Except for LaVine and Gordon, all the dunkers in the league went crazy collectively. Every bird and beast who thought they had two weeks in the field of dunking rushed to apply to the league to participate.
New York, NBA headquarters.
On the morning of the 19th, league officials received as many as 46 applications for participation, including 29 other teams except the Trail Blazers.
Single-handedly driving the entire alliance into madness, Bald Hua had to re-examine Wang Zelin's influence.
After thinking about it, he shook his head again, looked at the news of Wang Zelin's participation on the screen, and said with regret: "Obviously as long as you obey me, we can make the NBA bigger and stronger together, but why do you always have trouble with me?
!”
The next moment, Bald Hua's eyes returned to coldness. He looked at Wang Zelin's profile picture and fell into deep thought. He didn't come back to his senses for a long time.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
His index finger tapped the table rhythmically. After a while, Bald Hua showed a sinister smile on his face:
You said that you are playing well and why do you have to come out and show off? You have to participate in some dunk contest. Now, you can bring the opportunity to me.
Bald Hua secretly decided in his heart that Wang Zelin could not win this year's slam dunk contest no matter what. It was best for him to lose face in Portland at home, just like when Jordan was confident enough to participate in the three-point contest and participated excitedly.
, the result was a record-low 5 points, which cast a shadow on his originally flawless godhead.
When he thought that Wang Zelin was going to lose to many unknown people that he originally looked down on in the dunk contest, Bald Hua immediately showed a perverted smile on his face.
Immediately, he called his assistant and gave him the list of candidates for this year's dunk contest, as well as... the list of judges for the dunk contest that he carefully prepared.
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At 3 p.m., the NBA officially announced the participants of this slam dunk contest. There are as many as 6 participants this time:
Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine, the previous dunk champion;
Magic forward Aaron Gordon, the previous runner-up;
Kings star talented small forward Andrew Wiggins;
Lakers sophomore Larry Nance Jr., the son of Larry Nance, the super dunker of the last century;
Pacers forward Glenn Robinson III, the son of retired star Glenn Robinson;
And, suddenly the most famous player on this year’s competition roster, the leader of the Portland dynasty and the number one player in the NBA—Wang Zelin!
All six participants in this competition are representatives of top physical talent. Due to the perfect ending of last year's All-Star Game, this dunk contest has attracted much attention before it even started. Now with the blessing of Wang Zelin's fame, this dunk contest will
, as if he was rushing to compete in the strongest slam dunk contest in history.
With top-quality participating players, a top-quality team of judges is also indispensable.
Half an hour later, the league immediately announced the list of judges for this year's slam dunk contest.
Once announced, it once again detonated the entire basketball circle.
The first one to appear was the "God of Basketball" Michael Jordan. The addition of God has already made people extremely crazy.
But it wasn't over yet. Fans continued to look back and suddenly discovered that the second judge was actually the ancient god "Dr. J" Julius Erving!
Before Jordan, Dr. J was almost synonymous with dunks and was also a world-famous basketball superstar in the 1970s.
The name of the third judge is also very resounding, "The Essence of Human Movies" Dominic Wilkins, a representative of the ultimate violent beauty in the field of dunks.
Then, the fans suppressed their excitement and looked at the last two judges. The result was somewhat unexpected to them.
The fourth judge: current NBA player and Lakers star "Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant.
Kobe's selection also brought people's memories back to the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. At that time, Kobe, who had just grown up, had played in the NBA for three months. He was so thin that he still retained his childishness and had not yet retained his No. 8.
The iconic afro of the period.
Young Ke, a rookie in that slam dunk contest, replicated Isaiah Leder's one-handed undercrotch dunk that he won in 1994, and defeated Finley and Sura with a move that now seems to be in his early 40s.
Ray Allen became the youngest dunk champion in NBA history.
But after this session, it seems that the last bit of freshness of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest has been drained.
In 1998, no one signed up for the slam dunk contest, and the NBA was forced to announce the cancellation of the event and change it to a tender-sounding mixed-gender shooting contest;
In 1999, the league had to shut down due to the collapse of the collective bargaining agreement. The All-Star Weekend was gone, so why talk about a slam dunk contest?
By this time, the slam dunk contest seemed to have withdrawn from the stage of history.
Therefore, Yuke was once called "the last dunk king in history"!
And all of this created a ground-breaking, earth-shattering, earth-shattering, and the strongest dunk god in the past few years who was sealed for a year. He was so strong that he had to play the idiom Solitaire to describe his ending.
But back in 1997, although Kobe never participated in any slam dunk contest again, this did not prevent Kobe from performing all kinds of incredible dunks in actual combat.
There is nothing to say about Kobe's actual air separation ability. In terms of quantity, he is 100% top-notch. Although he does not have the visually explosive masterpieces like Carter's tough guy Mourning and Madison's splitting a bamboo pole, Kobe is awesome in one thing:
The quality of his dunk objects is too high!
This also reflects the huge number of players he dunks on. For example, old Nash and rookie Paul will not be mentioned anymore, and we will go directly to the star insider:
"Welcome to the NBA" to rookie Dayao and rookie Howard!
In the playoffs at the beginning of the century, the Trail Blazers and Lakers faced off against the "Roof of the World" Sabonis!
Angrily dunking the admiral, dunking the big dream, splitting the stone Buddha alive...
Ahem, I will add an extra sentence here, whether it is Peter Pan in the No. 8 era or the Black Mamba in the No. 24 era, Duncan's background is absolutely indispensable for Kobe's buckle background.
And this is only part of it. Mutombo, Ewing, Divac, Nowitzki, and the 2.24-meter Dutch center Smith were all dunked by Kobe.
In terms of the value of the roster alone, there are only a handful of players in NBA history who can rival Kobe.
Therefore, Kobe's selection is justified and has been recognized by many fans.
The last player selected was none other than Wang Zelin's former number one center in the NBA - "Warcraft" Dwight Howard.
The reason why Howard was selected is also very simple and crude. He is a rare center dunk champion in NBA history!
The God of Basketball, Dr. J, Human Movie Essence, Black Mamba, and Warcraft. The 2017 Slam Dunk Contest will be judged by five of them. Three legends and two current players, but everyone knows that Kobe and Howard have basically made reservations in advance.
Two spots in the Hall of Fame.
At the same time, NBA officials also specifically noted in the report that these five people also have three irreplaceable hard conditions:
1. At least one slam dunk title. Among the five, only Dr. J is not the NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion, but he is the 1976 ABA Slam Dunk Contest champion and is the undoubted first-generation super dunk player.
2 Top-level actual dunkers have demonstrated their dunking skills in actual NBA competitions and have a large number of high-quality actual dunks.
3 Undoubted league superstars at the peak of their careers. To put it simply, he was guaranteed to be selected to the All-NBA First Team once and was an eight-time All-Star.
Being selected for a period of time means that this player was the strongest player at the same position at the peak of his career, and was one of the strongest among the five positions in the NBA.
And being an All-Star for eight times means that he can maintain his dominance for a long time in the cruel NBA league, rather than being a short-lived meteor player.
In the history of the NBA, there are only these 5 people who can perfectly meet the above three conditions.
No wonder when the list of judges was announced, many fans believed that this was the most valuable session in NBA history.
The last time the judging panel of a slam dunk contest could come close to being as valuable as this was the 2007 dunk contest.
At that time, in order to build momentum for the dunk contest, the league deployed various resources and relationships, and finally found a list of judges for the dunk contest similar to this one.
The only difference is that in the 2007 Slam Dunk Contest, one of the five judges was "demigod" Vince Carter, and this time it was "Warcraft" Howard.
The other four are basically the same, at most they are 10 years older.
In terms of dominance in the field of dunks, Carter is obviously far superior to Howard, at least two levels higher.
But in terms of personal career honors, Howard also far surpasses Carter, and the height he reached in the league during his heyday was also Howard's advantage.
Therefore, it is no exaggeration to call this session the most valuable judging panel in history!
From the participating players to the participating judges, they are almost infinitely closer to perfection. The topic of "The Most Luxurious Slam Dunk Contest in History" has also successfully broken through and attracted the attention of countless people.
At this time, even passerby netizens who were not basketball fans actively joined the discussion.