From Superman, to the KIA Optima, to Twitter, the NBA Dunk Contest has come a long way

Once upon a time, Spud Webb was dunking balls as if he had lowered the rim on the net that sat outside on his drive way.  The only difference was this net was still 10 feet tall, and instead of sitting on his driveway, it sat in the home of the NBA Dunk Contest.  Spud Webb was merely 5'7, and in the world of basketball, they call that dwarfism.  His size never kept him from achieving greatness however, and the one time Atlanta Hawk surprised the media and the world when he won the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest, beating out his fellow teammate Dominique Wilkins. 

At 5'7, Spud Webb could still dunk with the best of them.

What Webb did back then was breath taking.  It was exhilarating.  It drew "Oh's" and "Ah's" from the crowd like Siegfried and Roy when they flew a white tiger across the room.  Today, the Dunk Contest is even more entertaining.  Today, you have Dwight Howard donning a Superman uniform and force feeding the rim the ball.  Today, you have Blake Griffin leaping over the hood of a KIA Optima, catching an alley-oop pass from fellow teammate Baron Davis while a gospel choir sings "I Believe I Can Fly" by R Kelly.   And today, you, the fan, can pick the Dunk Contest winner from the sanctuary of your own home, by simply using a Twitter account.

In article published on ESPN, writers Marc Stein and Tim MacMahon discussed the layout of this years Dunk Contest along with the 24 hour news coverage that has been called "Lin-sanity",  due to the tremendous amount of media presence surrounding heralded New York Knicks point-guard Jeremy Lin.  While the story on Lin is a great one, we will save that for another day.  The part of the article that was so interesting, was how the winner of the Dunk Contest will be selected this year.

Point-guard Jeremy Lin has become a media sensation in helping the Kicks reach a 7-game win streak.

In the past, the Dunk Contest winner was appointed by the judges, who gave each dunk a score of 1 to 10 based on how well the dunk made their eyes pop from their sockets.  This year however, the fans will be able to vote for their favorite dunk contest winner via the social networking site, Twitter.  While Blake Griffin will not be returning to defend his crown, the crowd at the game as well as those crowded around their television sets, will be able to decide who takes the crown by tweeting their favorite dunker, voting online, or sending a text message.  Many people are concerned that the ability to vote for the Dunk Contest winner will affect the outcome.   You have to think though, when have the fans ever disagreed with the judges ruling?  Never.  Bring on the new champion.