LeBron James finally admitted Tuesday night that the NBA's annual Slam Dunk Contest doesn't do much for him. Personally. With him in the spotlight, with the ball, at center stage, anyway.
"I'm not a regretful guy,'' James said after the Cleveland Cavaliers' 108-100 victory over Toronto, when asked about his vow a year ago to participate and his decision now to abstain after all. "I don't know, I'm not high on [the contest]. All-Star Saturday night, it's probably the biggest event that we have. But I'm glad for the participants that are in it."
Over on the other side of the room, Shaquille O'Neal was amusing reporters by mock-offering to persuade his explosive and elusive teammate by turning this year's throwdown competition into one for the ages. "As his manager, I will only allow LeBron to do the dunk contest if Vince Carter comes back out, if Kobe [Bryant] comes back out and if another big name comes back out,'' O'Neal said, all deadpan. "The guys that are in it, no disrespect to them, but they wouldn't really be any competition for LeBron.''
Down the hall, though, that was all fine with Toronto's DeMar DeRozan. The Raptors' rookie, who already leads the league in capital letters, would love to add a title to his name. As in dunk title.
"Just being invited, just being able to go out there and represent my team, I'm grateful for it,'' DeRozan told me before Tuesday's tipoff. "It would have been exciting if LeBron was in it. I think that's what everybody in the league, everybody in the world wanted to see. He didn't want to do it -- but he might do it next year, you never know.''
A situation that James went Hamlet on -- to dunk or not to dunk -- DeRozan sees as an opportunity to seize. In fact, he gave his OK to a Web site dedicated to his availability, LetDeMarDunk.com, including a petition that his backers could fill out to urge his involvement. DeRozan -- described by Toronto insiders as a terrific and otherwise humble citizen since the team drafted him out of USC last June with the ninth pick overall -- apparently made some noise that he could win the event even if the all-time dunkingest of dunkers, Michael Jordan, were competing.
That calls to mind the apocryphal story about baseball legend Ty Cobb, who told an interviewer that in the modern major leagues of the 1950s, he might hit .310 or .315 compared to his actual .367 lifetime batting average. Asked why so low, Cobb responded: "Well, you have to remember, I'm 72 years old now.''
Jordan, you have to remember, will turn 47 years old a few days after this dunk contest. So yeah, DeRozan might have a shot.
"I just wanted to get something started, put up some highlights from the season,'' DeRozan said of his Web site. "It's a little idea that came to mind -- I got it from Shannon Brown. Shannon had LetShannonDunk.com.''
A lithe 6-foot-7, DeRozan is an equal opportunity dunker, going off either one leg or two and capable of throwing down with either hand. As in the highlight play against New York last week, when he couldn't control a lob with his right hand so he switched in mid-air to hammer it down with his left.
At the moment, of course, DeRozan is really only half an entrant in the contest. He and Clippers guard Eric Gordon will participate in the league's first Dunk-In, a wrinkle of a round added this year to spread some of the Slam Dunk's wonderfulness to an extra night -- and fill a time gap at halftime of the Rookie Challenge game, when even broadcast analysts don't have too much to say. The winner will be determined by viewers who can cast their votes by text message or online at NBA.com, and DeRozan and Gordon will get just two dunks each to impress the vast panel of judges and advance to the weekend's next night.
Might sound like pressure, but it isn't any more than DeRozan felt when he first dunked -- he was in sixth grade. "Just outside on the playground, trying to show off for the eighth graders,'' he said. "I wasn't that tall. I was just hyped to dunk for the first time.'' From there, DeRozan advanced to Compton High in Los Angeles, averaging 29.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and three steals as a senior. He won the slam dunk title at McDonald's All-America game for prep stars, getting perfect scores on his final two makes. On the last one, he bounced the ball off the backboard, smacked the glass with one hand and dunked with the other.
That's the guy Gordon will face, the guy the other participants might have to beat. Charlotte's Gerald Wallace is back after a 2002 berth in the event. New York's Nate Robinson won it in 2006 and again last February. Lakers guard Brown seems to be the NBA insiders' choice, with LeBron stroking his chin as he imagined Brown's offerings.
"A lot of people don't realize Shannon almost beat LeBron in a McDonald's contest,'' DeRozan said. "I know he's going to come with something. Nate is great. You know he's going to do something special. Gerald Wallace is one of the most exciting dunkers.''
Gordon? "I used to watch him in high school,'' the Raptors rookie said. "I know he can get up and do a dunk. I'm not going to underestimate him. I'm going to stay quiet -- I don't want him to pull out any '720' on me.''
DeRozan's favorite dunker of all-time is, coincidentally, a former Toronto wing man. "Every year, I was always excited to see the dunk contest since I was a little boy,'' he said. "I think hands down, Vince Carter was the best dunker.''
His favorite dunk? "When Jordan cuffed it, soared along the baseline, dunked on other side,'' he said.
Teammates have been offering suggestions for a competition that is as much about the setup and the followthrough these days as it is about the aerobatics. "I'm still coming up with ideas with Sonny [Weems] and my man Jarrett [Jack],'' DeRozan said. "Lately it's been real creative and entertaining. It's not just about dunks now. It's about the props, what you do before the dunks, what you do after, like a whole little script.''
Historically, the scripts for dunk contestants haven't always had Hollywood endings. A backdrop has developed, in fact, that doesn't exist with the other All-Star Saturday events. Fortunately, given his 8.2 scoring average and his defensive contributions while starting all 42 games for Toronto, DeRozan's projected career seems certain to surpass -- heck, his season thus far might already have surpassed -- the lifetime contributions of some past dunkers. Guys such as Harold Miner, Gerald Green, Stromile Swift, Jonathan Bender, Tim Perry and Jamie Watson never got much spotlight after their dunking days.
DeRozan doesn't want this to be the high point of his NBA career, no matter how high he gets on his attempts. "It's good for players like me, being a rookie, just being on the main stage, you can make a name for yourself,'' he said. "A lot of people, they won't want to just see dunks, they'll want to see your game. That can be very beneficial for anybody. Vince Carter, it was his second year when he won it and that was his breakout year.''
Raptors coach Jay Triano isn't worried about the downside of dunk-contesting. "I can't really think of any negatives in it,'' Triano said. "It's a great opportunity for him to go and get some exposure. He's a great kid -- it's not like he's going to go to All-Star Weekend and do silly things. He's very focused on becoming a better basketball player, and it's just something he should be able to enjoy doing.''
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