NBA Slam Dunk Contest 2012: Jeremy Evans Wins Disastrous Event

The competition is heated! Vote after the jump.

All demerits apply -- there’s enough hate to go around. What’s worse: a boring dunk with a neat, original idea behind it (Evan’s Camera dunk)? A forced, poorly acted bit that ends up with an underwhelming dunk from a technical standpoint? A technically sound dunk that you just can’t finish? This is a really subjective call.

Here’s the Evans double dunk:

So of our three contenders, which was the best? Vote in our poll.

Evans answered with a smile that exposed a mouth full of braces. “Not too crazy,” he said. “They picked me kinda late, you know? But I got something.” Then Aldridge laughed back, “Ohhhhh so you already makin’ excuses? They picked you kinda late?”

Evans laughed too. “I’ll be ready.”

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For all your 2012 Slam Dunk Contest needs, be sure to visit this StoryStream.

Paul George brought out two players to assist his dunk, saying he needed one guy to pass and another to jump over. We’ve seen plenty of Slam Dunk Contest participants jump over players, kids and cars, but George decided to up the ante by bringing out 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert. Chase Budinger jumped over P. Diddy, so George needed to step it up a bit.

It took him a bit of time to get warmed up, but after two misses he finally got over Hibbert. Video of the dunk is below.

Evans, wearing a camera, threw the ball up high from just inside the three-point line, then grabbed it from just above the rim and slammed it home on a reverse. Evans then proceeded to swing from the rim, presumably to convince all of the relatively unimpressed fans in attendance and on their couches that his dunk was not relatively unimpressive. That did not work.

On the bright side, Evans has two more dunks to go and he might yet make something of his opportunity to escape the obscurity of playing sparingly for the Jazz. I guess that’s a bright side, anyway.

Budinger, determined to prove to Diddy that white men can, in fact, jump, decided to jump over P. Diddy. The rap mogul was kind enough to throw the ball up to Budinger with a no-look, over the shoulder pass. Budinger jumped over Diddy and threw it down in impressive fashion.

For a first dunk, this was a good one for Budinger. He involved a celebrity and did something cool without bringing his best, leaving something in reserve for later rounds.

We all remember TNT’s Christmas Day promo for the return of the NBA. Following the lockout, everyone was hungry for professional basketball, and TNT ushered in the day with a terrific pre-game promo that had to go down as one of the all-time greats. And now, on All-Star Saturday, they’re at it again with another excellent promo.

This time around, the two-minute spot was cut for the dunk contest. It features classic dunk moments in somewhat of a music video format, with Kanye West and Jay-Z singing “Ni***s in Paris” over the highlights. Once again the production value is through the roof and TNT set the stage for the events of the evening in a great way.

Fans have always been able to vote for the winner of the Slam Dunk Contest as part of NBA All-Star Saturday, but there have been some changes this year. Instead of the judges deciding on two finalists for fans to vote on, there will be no judges and all four dunkers will be subject to fan voting. There will be one round with no eliminations.

For the last four years, voting has taken place through SMS texting and NBA.com, but the league has thrown Twitter into the mix this year.

NBA All-Star Weekend has arrived in Orlando. The 2012 edition of the annual exhibition includes skills challenges, such as the Haier Shooting Stars event, the Taco Bell Skills Contest and the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest. Not to be forgotten, of course, is one of the most popular events every year, the Slam Dunk Contest.

Coverage of all four events begins 8 p.m. ET on TNT. The Sprite Slam Dunk Contest is scheduled to be the final event of the night.

The contest dates back to the 1976 ABA All-Star Game, where Julius Erving claimed the inaugural title. The contest was reintroduced by the NBA in 1984, when Larry Nance bested Erving to take home the trophy.

The Sprite Slam Dunk Contest will be the final event held during All-Star Saturday Night festivities, which begin 8 p.m. ET on TNT.

Unless ...

I like that sound of that.

The ad is below the jump.

There isn’t much that a player can do at the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend that we haven’t seen before. Knowing that, the league is tweaking the way that the competition’s winner is determined, deciding to shake things up this year by using Twitter to name a champion for the first time ever.

Unlike previous incarnations, there will only be one round of dunks this year, with each participant getting three attempts. In years past, the Slam Dunk Contest featured multiple rounds in which judges and fans scored the competitors’ attempts and whittled down the contestants until a winner was crowned.