The NBA Slam Dunk Contest - Am I the only one lucid enough to realize that Dwight Howard's Superman-clad "dunk" was not actually a dunk? While Howard's Kal-El moment was fun and entertaining, I'd of flagged him for not actually dunking the ball. The judges, all seasoned experts, gave him 10s in spite of the most important element, an actual dunk. Howard threw the ball downward into the hoop. Folks, it's a dunk competition, not a throw-the-ball-downward-into-the-hoop competition. Howard failed to dunk the basketball.

Magic Johnson and the rest of the guys commentating truly annoyed me with their "top 5 of all time" comments regarding Howard's creative genius. They tend to make such flavor-of-the-month comments annually. While Howard's dunks were truly groundbreaking, they weren't close to the greatest dunks ever. I can think of at least two dunks by Spud Webb that were better, several Jordan dunks, several by 'Nique. Even a guy named Terence Stansbury had an incredible Statue of Liberty 360 back in the day. Stansbury played for the Sonics when he threw that one down, under the gun of official dunk competition I might add, and it was a most picturesque kind of feat. No one does those anymore, and it's a shame. Would like to see a Statue of Liberty 360 again.

Dwight Howard broke new ground with his creativity last night. He is the world's most creative dunker right now. But guys like Jordan and Dominique could do the dunks he did, if only they had thought them up first. Accolades go to Howard for pioneering and pushing past the same-ole, same-ole. I just don't think his dunks were among the top 5 best ever.