we are all witnesses, but are we watching?

here's lebron with the ball on a 2-on-1, passes it to his right, gets it back, he goes up and--oh! LEBRON JAMES! with the facial! and the foul!

we have seen and heard this playcall [or one like it] of lebron james finishing a fast break with an authoritative slam dunk countless times before. in fact, we have seen this sequence unfold in the exact same way each and every time. it happens in exactly the same way in the sense that lebron has only three dunks in his repertoire: a two-handed overhead tomahawk dunk, a one-handed overhead tomahawk dunk and their cousin, a bring-the-ball-as-high-as-possible statue of liberty dunk [all of which can arguably be grouped together as being the same dunk with only a slight variation, which would be mean that he employs just one dunk]. if you don't believe me, watch any of lebron's highlight videos.

don't get me wrong, lebron james is a magnificent player, and long after his career is over, he will [most likely] be considered one of the all-time greats. but given his superhuman natural ability, he is the most uncreative player in the league. not only should he throw down some of the most creative dunks of all time, it is his duty to do what others cannot. i know that there are some who disagree and say that lebron is one of the most amazing dunkers today, to which i cannot disagree. but what makes his dunks so riveting really isn't his creativity, it's the fact that they are over players of all sizes and shapes [see tim duncan, rasheed wallace, damon jones, etc].

in each of his 4 nba seasons, lebron james has declined to participate in the slam dunk contest. in a 2006 commercial, lebron [as 'business lebron'] stated that dunk contests are "bourgeois." he would like us to believe that such a competition is above his level, that for someone of his caliber entering the dunk contest would be trite. i, on the other hand, have a different theory as to why lebron does not enter such a contest.

at this point in his young career, lebron has already garnered the distinction of being a top-tier dunker. with that in mind, he knows that if he entered the dunk contest, he would have very little to gain and everything to lose as far as reputations go. if lebron were to enter the dunk contest next year, he would go in as the favorite regardless of who the other entrants are. and if he wins, it would only confirm the uneducated and flawed opinion in most people's minds that he is an unparalleled dunker. anything less than a victory would be considered a failure. and if he were to lose [and it is my belief that not only would he lose, he would lose by a fairly large margin], he would also be exposed to the masses as the boring dunker that he is. it is this fear as to why he will never enter another dunk contest.

there still may be some who will say that the reason lebron chooses to not do creative dunks in a game is the thought that he doesn't want to risk missing an easy 2 points for his team. this may be true, but further proof of lebron being an uninnovative dunker can be found in footage of a slam dunk contest that he entered while he was in high school.



the evidence above speaks for itself. it's not as though lebron was lacking immaculate athletic ability at that age [it is fairly obvious to the contrary]. simply put, lebron james is unimaginative as a pure dunker. true, lebron may be the next jordan, but he's no vince carter.