Dwight Howard and Gerald Green did what I thought was impossible.  They turned the dunk contest into something worth watching on Saturday night.

I wrote last week that I get more excited about the 3 point competition than I do about the Slam Dunk Contest.  And I don't think I would have watched it had it not been something we needed to get in the show Saturday night.  But, after all I saw, I was glad that I was working and forced to watch it.

It started...STARTED...with Dwight Howard making an impossible dunk from behind the basket.  How can a man catch the ball off the back of the backboard, somehow get the ball to the front, avoided hitting his head and threw it down is beyond me.

The most under-rated dunk of the evening was Gerald Green's "Birthday-Cake" Dunk where he blew out a lit candle on a cupcake that was resting on the rim while dunking.  Simply stunning not only for it's athletic ability but also it's creativity. 

Speaking of creativity....Dwight Howard has created a new nickname for himself...Superman.  Sure props can sometimes be a little bit hokey, but this one worked to get the crowd amped up and the dunk (while not technically a dunk, still an athletic feat) topped off the performance.

It didn't even matter what Howard did in the Finals (even though he had two more creative dunks that we hadn't seen before).  He was clearly the champion, and clearly the man who had single-handedly brought the dunk contest back from the land of ideas that fizzled out (you know: clear Pepsi, Olestra, Who Wants to be a Millionaire) 

Watching the post-competition comments, Howard hinted that he was probably going to not return to defend his crown. 

I hope he reconsiders we can see many more Superman Returns (the basketball player, not the movie) at the dunk competition in the coming years.