Saturday, February 16, 2008
#6 It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's Superman!
Every year, midway through the NBA regular season, the NBA holds its annual All-Star weekend. This event brings several of the most talented basketball players in the league together for an All-Star game, as well as many skills competitions involving 3-point shooting contests and dribbling exhibitions to entertain the fans. However, there is one specific competition that highlights the entire weekend, the slam dunk contest. For the past couple of years many basketball fans have been disappointed in the lack of energy and creativity the players have been putting into the competition. In this year’s dunk contest that disappointment came to an end with an outrageous amount of defying dunks. For me personally, there were two dunks performed that i will never forget. For the first dunk, Gerald Green placed a cupcake with a lit candle on the back of the rim, and while he was in the air blew the candle out before slamming it through the rim. I thought that was the most original dunk I had ever seen. Finally, the dunk of the night was by Dwight Howard. Before the dunk, Howard put on a Superman cape and then jumped from the free throw line, soared through the air just like Superman, and dunked the ball. We should all thank Green and Howard for saving what was left of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest and allowing the fans to be excited about basketball again.
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As soon as I saw “It’s Superman!” in the title of this blog, I knew it must have been about the NBA All-Star weekend. I am not much of a fan of professional basketball but I love sports and watch them solely to enjoy the talent show that these professional athletes stage for America. So, I found the NBA skills contest to be extremely entertaining. The contest became more exciting as the night wore on and after, as you mentioned, Dwight Howard slammed his first dunk home; I knew I was in for a thrilling show. I was amazed at how much creativity that the players put into the contest and as an athlete myself, I could tell how much passion these players had for basketball.
I volunteer at a school for underprivileged minorities and today it seemed like all the kids wanted to talk about was “Superman” and the dunking contest. Professional athletes such as Dwight Howard are idols these kids and it is fantastic when they have a positive impact on the youth of America. The players showed that with dedication, practice, and perseverance anything can be accomplished. The kids became enthusiastic and positive about aspirations they had for the future and if school can’t teach them to be optimistic, I’m glad Dwight Howard can.
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