Paul George: NBA Dunk Contest ‘Was a Joke’

Paul George was a bit salty after losing out to Jeremy Evans in the Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend, and says that the NBA’s biggest names need to inject new life into the increasingly irrelevant showcase. From the Indy Star: “Gorge dunked over teammates Roy Hibbert and Dahntay Jones with his first dunk. He wore a glow-in-the-dark uniform and shoes and made a dunk (that was hard to see on TV) with the lights turned off with his second dunk. Then after several failed attempts, he made his third dunk while putting a sticker of Larry Bird on the backboard. Still, George had to watch Utah’s Jeremy Evans win the competition. Evans dunked two balls, which were thrown up by former Brownsburg High School and Butler standout Gordon Hayward. Evans wore a mini video camera on his ear during another dunk. And he jumped over comedian Kevin Hart, who is almost two feet shorter than the 7-2 Hibbert. ‘(Not to) take nothing away from the dunk contest, (but) it was a joke,’ George said. ‘I guess whoever had the biggest celebrity involved in their dunk was going to be the winner. I guess I should have tried to reach out to some people. If you leave it up to fans, they probably wouldn’t have known who Larry was. I think I was destined to lose it.’ Fans voted for the winner. […] ‘I agree, you have to have the faces of the league come back and get involved in it,’ George said. ‘That’s what really made it big back in the day when you had Jordan and Dominique going at it. That was the All Stars and the guys that were the men in the league. That’s what fans want to see.'”