Darryl Dawkins was born too early (1957) for the NBA All-Star break dunk contest, but when his time is up the ability to throw it down will no doubt be in the first paragraph of his obituary. <\/p>\n
Chocolate Thunder, who spent most of his career in the NBA underachieving for the 76ers and Nets but also had stints with the Pistons and Jazz before calling it quits in 1989, was more enamored with shattering backboards (he inspired the creation of the spring-loaded breakaway rims now in use) than improving his skills.<\/p>\n
He also loved to name his dunks. His personal favorite was believed to be \u201cChocolate Thunder-flying, Robinzine Crying,\u201d but mine was the understated \u201cDunk You Very Much.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of the entrants in Saturday\u2019s All-Star dunk contest has anywhere near the charm of Dawkins or many of the participants of years past. Big names (Griffin, James) seem now to make one obligatory appearance, then watch from the sidelines as athletic players \u2013 most of whom don\u2019t even start \u2013 get their day in the sun.<\/p>\n
The contest is one torn ACL away from being abolished, but until that happens the NBA gamely marches on with players hoping to make names for themselves on a national stage that eludes them during the regular season.<\/p>\n
This year the participants are Indiana\u2019s Gerald Green, Toronto\u2019s Terrence Ross, New York\u2019s James White, the Clippers\u2019 Eric Bledsoe, Utah\u2019s Jeremy Evans and Denver\u2019s Kenneth Faried. The odds (courtesy bovada.lv):<\/p>\n
JAMES WHITE (5\/4)<\/strong> \u2013 White has at least thought about this in advance, telling anyone who will listen that he has five dunks that he figures will get perfect scores from the judges. That alone should give him an edge.<\/p>\n GERALD GREEN (4\/1)<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s been six years since Green (then with the Celtics) won the contest in Las Vegas. Since then he\u2019s banged around the league and is finally starting to figure out the game, getting serious minutes with Indiana. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n TERRENCE ROSS (7\/2)<\/strong> \u2013 With basketball struggling in Toronto, would you put it past David Stern to have a few words with the judges beforehand and indicate how beneficial it would be to ticket sales if a Raptor wins?<\/p>\n ERIC BLEDSOE (5\/1)<\/strong> \u2013 Way overvalued. With the Clippers already losing two of every three games they play without Chris Paul, Vinny Del Negro should be fired on the spot if he hasn\u2019t already told Bledsoe to take it easy. Bledsoe tearing up a knee is not ideal route to a long-term contract, either.<\/p>\n JEREMY EVANS (8\/1)<\/strong> \u2013 Michael Jordan, Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson are the only back-to-back winners, and neither MJ nor Robinson deserved their second wins. At least Evans should be rested \u2013 he gets all of five minutes a game in Utah, and even one dunk in a real game would help improve his scoring average (1.4 ppg).<\/p>\n KENNETH FARIED (8\/1)<\/strong> \u2013 Faried\u2019s courageous stand in favor of gay rights (he was raised by two mothers) is a huge step forward for the league and for equal rights for the LGBT community. He\u2019ll have a lot of supporters.<\/p>\n 2013 Dunk Contest Gambling Odds Darryl Dawkins was born too early (1957) for the NBA All-Star break dunk contest, but when his time is up the ability to throw it down will no doubt be in the first paragraph of his obituary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":34049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58099,58100,58101,10375,58103,53843,58102,55357,10378,10374,10345,10377,10376],"class_list":["post-60006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-2013-nba-all-star-game-lines","tag-2013-nba-all-star-game-odds","tag-2013-nba-allstar-game","tag-3-point-contest-odds","tag-all-star-skills","tag-bovada","tag-bovada-nba-odds","tag-bovada-sportsbook","tag-dunk-contest-gambling-odds","tag-dunk-contest-odds","tag-nba-all-star-game-betting-preview","tag-nba-all-star-skills-betting","tag-skills-competition-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60006"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60016,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60006\/revisions\/60016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}PREDICTED WINNER: Green<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR TOP NBA CAPPERS PREDICTIONS FOR TODAY!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"