DeMar's Dunks Impress without Cars, Choirs or Child Actors

NBA All-Star Weekend 2011 Day 2 is in the books and DeMar DeRozan put on an impressive showing at the Staples Centre but his first round dunks in last night's Slam Dunk contest weren't enough to put him through to the finals.  DeMar didn't use any gimmicks, or props in his first two dunks and was just a few points shy from moving onto the finals.  Blake Griffin took home the crown with his game-winning dunk over a car....well, the hood of a car.


DeMar's First Dunk:  "The Easy Bay Funk Remix"

The "East Bay Funk" was a slam dunk contest classic when Isaiah Rider pulled it off in '94 and last night, DeMar performed his own version of the dunk. The "Remix" part of this dunk was that teammate, Amir Johnson, was going to assist DeMar by bouncing it off behind the backboard and DeMar would pull off the Easy Bay Funk dunk in midair.

After about a minute and multiple failed attempts including bad passes from Amir, DeMar pulled it off.  Unfortunately, DeMar was the first to dunk in the first round and it took a few attempts to get it done.  So being the first dunker, and not being able to pull it off on the first attempt definitely hurt him on his score from the judges.
Final Score: 44      My Score: 47

DeMar's Second Dunk: "The Show Stopper"

Now, this dunk got the crowd on their feet.  With a bounce pass to himself, DeMar rocked the ball for a reverse windmall...AND he pulled it off on the first attempt.  If you catch the replays (and look at the pic above), DeMar's head was at the rim when he got up there.  A solid '50' came from the judges...which I thought was enough to get him into the finals especially after the struggled dunk attempts from Blake Griffin with his second dunk.  But the fix was in, BG pulled enough points to get him into the finals.
Final Score: 50     My Score: 50

Was DeMar robbed last night?  Probably.  Some of the other dunks came off kind of corny and some looked sloppy but still got good marks from the judges.  But on a positive note, I have to admit that all of the contestants each had at least one impressive dunk.  I personally think that DeMar is just naturally more of a shy guy so his personality doesn't come through like the rest of the other contestants and the use of gimmicks and props by the other guys doesn't help.  The contest-winning dunk from Blake Griffin, where he brought a Kia and a choir to hype it up, came off  very Vince McMahon-WWE-ish, in my opinion.  I would have liked to see Blake Griffin do something athletically amazing without the props but hey...I have to say the dunk contest lived up to the hype as all of the guys really got creative with their dunks.

I'm curious to know what DeMar had planned for his second round dunks...

What did you think? Let's hear your favourite and least favourite dunks of last night...

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