Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY Sports
LeBron James needs to stop teasing everyone.
Terrence Ross. Jeremy Evans. Nate Robinson. Gerald Green. Josh Smith. Fred Jones. Other than Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard, those six players have been the winners of the dunk contest in the years since LeBron James has entered the NBA.
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The All-Star Saturday spectacle that immortalized Michael Jordan in the 1980s continues to become less relevant due to a lack of marquee names, but the Heat star showed the crowd before Sunday's game with Cleveland what NBA fans continue to miss out on by his annual absence in the competition.
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As that image from the team's shoot around shows, James did a 360 at the three-point line, passed the ball under his legs from his left to right hand, threw a hook shot off the backboard and lept to grab the rebound and throw it down. AND HE WAS JUST MESSING AROUND IN WARM UPS.
James seemed to toy with the idea of entering the dunk contest prior to All-Star weekend this year, or at least wanted his Twitter followers to think he was doing so. With James currently performing at such an unreal level in games that actually matter, it's doubtful that he or the Heat would want him devoting any extra energy to something that would risk unnecessary injury. Also, short of jumping over the backboard into the concourse, bouncing a ball off a mascot and then dunking after doing a backflip from the concession stand while eating a hot dog, James would probably never pull anything off that would live up to expectations.
But come on. If he's pulling off stuff like this without even trying, he needs to show everyone what he could do if given a showcase.
Here's the original fan video (forgive the shooter's inability to turn his phone sideways) that captured the whole scene.