Los Angeles Clippers’ guard Eric Gordon and DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors will compete in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk-In to determine one of the participants in the Sprite Slam Dunk, the NBA announced today. The NBA All-Star Slam Dunk-In will air live on TNT, which will televise the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam (9 p.m. ET) from American Airlines Center in Dallas.
This one-round slam dunk-in competition will be held during halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on Friday, Feb. 12, and fans will determine the winner by voting via SMS text message and at NBA.com.
TNT’s coverage of All-Star Weekend continues Saturday from American Airlines Center in Dallas with All-Star Saturday Night (8 p.m. ET) and concludes Sunday from Cowboys Stadium with the 59th NBA All-Star Game (8 p.m. ET).
Gordon and DeRozan will have two dunks each, with a two-minute time limit to complete each dunk. Fans will determine the winner of the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk-In by voting via SMS Text message or on NBA.com during the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam. Voting polls will open at the beginning of the event and close two minutes after the final dunk. The player with a higher percentage of overall votes will advance to participate in the Sprite Slam Dunk event on All-Star Saturday Night. The other three contestants in the Sprite Slam Dunk will be announced on Monday, Jan. 18.
The inclusion of Gordon comes as a bit of a surprise. Gordon certainly is a heck of an athlete, but he’s not your classic dunk contest participant. Gordon is more of an authoritative dunker than a flashy one, so we’ll see how that translates. The last dunk contest Gordon participated in was at Indiana where he lost to Jordan Crawford, who would eventually become an internet sensation this summer for dunking on LeBron James.
Gordon’s competition this time around is DeMar DeRozan, who is an absolutely otherworldly dunker. Here’s a sample of what DeRozan can do:
Eric is definitely the heavy underdog going in, but it will be interesting to see what tricks he has up his sleeve for the contest.
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