Howard Breaks Out Perhaps the Best Dunks Ever

By Stan McNeal
Sean Deveney and Stan McNeal are on the ground in New Orleans, covering the All-Star festivities. Check back all weekend for updates.
Watch out Shaq, there’s a new Superman in town. He plays for one of your old teams and he is the new dunk champion.
Dwight Howard pulled out the most impressive collection of dunks in a long time -- ever, perhaps -- to win the slam dunk contest at All-Star Saturday -- the best dunk contest seen in a long, long time. There’s no sense in trying to describe Howard’s performance because you need to see them to believe them.
Let’s put it this way: Gerald Green blew out a candle on a cupcake behind the basket on one dunk, dunked without shoes on another and caught a lob bounce pass, took the ball through his legs and then dunked on another. And he didn’t have a chance of finishing better than second.

Howard’s dunks were that incredible. He came in from out of bounds on his first dunk, and then showed off his kid-like imagination by unveiling a Superman top and cape on his second dunk. Both dunks earned him perfect scores. For his final dunk, Howard took the ball off a mini-basket set two feet to the right of the real hoop and slammed.
Howard should have won last year when he went up some 13.5 feet with his left hand and placed a sticker on the backboard -- and then dunked with this right hand. That didn’t impress the judges.
His array Saturday night impressed everyone -- the judges on the scene and the fans voting online and on their cell phones. They had the final say this time, and they said Howard in a landslide. He finished with 78 percent of the votes.

Howard said Friday this probably would be his last dunk contest. That’s easy to understand. What could he do to top this performance?
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