This reader is writing in response to Alex Mellion’s article, “Opinion: R.I.P. NBA Slam Dunk contest” (Feb. 17). It has been edited for style and content.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion and are free to write whatever you want, but I feel like I should respond to some of the things you were saying. First of all, the dunk contest most definitely isn’t dead. This year’s definitely lacked the variety and creativity of years past but definitely isn’t a sign that it will never be able to recover… I really think you took a lot away from Shannon Brown and DeMar DeRozan. Both of them are outstanding players and Shannon Brown is just a freak athlete to say the least, so while people may not have heard of them, they are incredible.

Anyways, you’re right it would be great to have a LeBron James, or a Dwight Howard in the Dunk contest again, but sadly it won’t happen. Dwight would re-enter before LeBron ever did. LeBron has way too much money riding on his staying healthy and not to mention being the most sought after player in the NBA is nothing really to screw around with.

This year was definitely lacking I agree, so write that! But don’t talk about how David Stern should “make” superstars enter the contest, or mediate what he thinks is creative and what he doesn’t.

There are really only so many different variations of things you can do: reverse, 360, through the legs, windmill, behind the back. Do those with a toss up to yourself or off the backboard.

There’s really not much else you can do, so give them a break man. Almost everything being done has already been done before. You mentioned the Michael Jordan days when things were more … when in truth Michael is famous [for] the free throw line dunk he did, when it was already done by Dr. J. So give them a break. This year was bad. Hopefully next year [will be] better.

-Matthew King,
Suffolk student