Takeaways: NBA Skills Competition comes up short on wow moments

Indiana Pacers' Victor Oladipo dunks while wearing a mask from the movie "Black Panther" during the NBA basketball All-Star weekend slam dunk contest Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Bob Donnan/AP)

In what was a fun but ultimately underwhelming NBA All-Star Saturday night, the big winners were players from teams who haven’t done much winning in the first half of the NBA season. The 2018 NBA Skills Competition will be remembered for the high amount of missed shots and dunk attempts rather than the frequency of wow moments.

Here are my takeaways from the show that the NBA players put on in Hollywood for the biggest night during NBA All-Star weekend.

Raptors Hate
Before the competition started Jimmy Butler tried to throw shade on the Raptors during the Team Stephen Curry practice. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan set him straight.

RIP, Skills Challenge
Finally, the guards retained the title from the big men in the skills challenge. Spencer Dinwiddie won, but let’s be honest: nobody cares — including the players performing in the competition.

The name of the event itself is flawed as they don’t display skills and the course is not a challenge. Everyone is traveling at half speed. There is no chance any of the competitors even bothered to stretch before they took the floor. This needs to be abolished in favour of Charles Barkley racing a referee. I’d rather watch NBA players play a game of bump than the skills challenge. Literally, anything else would be more entertaining than this. Even two ball. Next year, fill the allotted Skills challenge time slot with Stephen Curry and LeBron James picking their respective All-Star teams live. You’re welcome, Adam Silver.

Devin deadly from deep

Devin Booker put up a record 28 points out of a possible 34 in the three-point contest.

Klay Thompson was the favourite coming in and had the previous final-round record. Booker dropped 28 points in the championship round to surpass Thompson’s 25 and Los Angeles Clippers forward Tobias Harris, who scored 17. Steph Curry and Thompson previously held the single-round record with 27 points.

The three biggest rounds ever have all been since the league switched to a format where a “money ball” rack can be placed anywhere and all the balls are worth double. The competition was mired by not just poor shooting but a bunch of bad misses. Paul George laid the most bricks and even tried to call bank to and use the glass when nothing else was working.

The Raptors were represented as Kyle Lowry participated for the second straight year, but was eliminated in the first round again after a tough score of 11. However, the big winner on the night was the 21-year-old Booker, who likely has a bunch of competition wins and all-star game appearances in his future.

And not only did Booker have the nicest stroke he also had the nice shoes on his feet.

Donovan’s creative dunks passed the field
The Jazz just can’t stop winning. Not only did they come in to the all-star break winning 11 straight, but their leading scored Donovan Mitchell took home the dunk contest title. Mitchell showed he was out to win it all from the very start of the competition as he led off by throwing a backboard alley, to himself finishing with a windmill using two different nets. That was good enough for a 48 and set the tone for the competition.

Like father like son
Larry Nance paid tribute to his dad by both bringing him out of the front row to help participate as a passer and rocking his old Suns jersey, including the tight shorts and high socks. His dad made the “rock the cradle” dunk famous before Michael Jordan made it a Nike commercial. Nance brought it back to remind everyone who did it first.

And the award for best costume goes to …

Props to Victor Oladipo for bringing props. The movie everyone is talking about right now is Black Panther, which is on track to set box office records.

Oladipo decided to elicit some Marvel super power help for his second dunk. Oladipo casually walked over to Black Panther leading man Chadwick Boseman, who was seated with co-star Michael B. Jordan, and grabbed a mask from the film to wear during his attempt. At which point he had the crowd in his hands.

The only problem is he missed the attempt right afterwards. Kenny Smith had the line of the night saying, “If he misses again, I’m not going to see the movie.” Oladipo had the most misses in the first round which is why he didn’t advance. His misses were actually breathtaking as his degree of difficulty was the hardest. He just couldn’t finish the scene when the audience was ready to give him an ovation.

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Dunking over Kevin Hart isn’t impressive

It seems every year Kevin Hart is used as a prop in the dunk competition. Mitchell went back to that well and it wasn’t as impressive as you might think.

News flash: Kevin Hart is short. Jumping over him to dunk isn’t that impressive as you probably need to clear his height to flush on a 10-foot net in the first place. Mitchell brought Hart out with his own sister, Jordan and Hart’s young son.

He had the three of them duck down for him to soar over them from the baseline while catching a pass of the side of the backboard. The fact this was given a 50, waters down the true meaning of what a 50 is as we’ve seen variations of this dunk plenty of times throughout the years.

Further complicating matters is the fact the dunk isn’t all the different from another off the backboard dunk he did in the competition.

Yo, watch this in slow-mo

Larry Nance Jr.’s last dunk went from the most unimpressive to the most impressive in the competition after the benefit of replay. You know it’s real when the dunker himself pleads to the judges to watch the tape before they score it.

The great offensive rebounder double tapped the ball with two hands off the backboard and then dunked it with two hands. Dwight Howard has done it before with one hand but nobody else had the audacity to do it with two. Bravo, young Nance. You didn’t win the competition. But in your return to Staples Center, you won the award for the best dunk of the night.

Mitchell pays respect to Vin-sanity

There is nothing better than nostalgia to seal the dunk contest.

Donovan Mitchell wisely paid tribute to the best dunk contest performer of all-time, Vince Carter. Mitchell saved his best dunk for last. On his second attempt, after slipping on the first, he completed an opposite way 360 dunk. Then followed it up with the VC two-handed point to the sky and the famous “it’s over” proclamation and hand action.

Although that was not the best dunk of the competition and didn’t have the same elevation or power as Carter’s rendition, it was enough to beat Larry Nance Jr., who had help from his ex-NBA playing father who won the first competition.

Dennis Smith Jr. calls out judges

If this dunk contest had a theme, it was misses on initial attempts ruining the suspense and dunks looking better after the slow-motion replays showed off their subtle degree of difficulty. Dennis Smith Jr.’s second attempt got him a rare 50 and it was because after review, the degree of difficulty of switching hands on a between-the-leg dunk is so crazy it had to get full marks.

But Smith was rightfully mad that he didn’t get full marks for made dunks when the competitors like Nance and Oladipo didn’t lose appropriate marks for missing multiple dunks. There should be more weight given to a dunk that is landed on the first attempt. And a dunk that isn’t ever completed in the allotted three attempts shouldn’t be given any points. It is the dunk contest after all not the dunk attempt contest. We need judging guidelines and judging reform.

Judging the Judges

That highlights a bigger issue. Why were Mark Wahlberg, Chris Rock and DJ Khaled judging? Not only are they not former players or dunk contest participants, none of them have ever dunked. They weren’t mic’d so you couldn’t hear their commentary. Other than Chris Rock’s facial reactions after dunks and Khaled blowing an air horn after a completed dunk, they didn’t add anything to the telecast or competition. Khaled was the Russian judge as he routinely gave out the lowest score.

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