Collins in the dunk contest

[DirtybirdGA]

Wake fans would betray him...lol

[PG13]

The face of the franchise

[DirtybirdGA]

They released pics to make the events official

[Jamaaliver]

I'm obviously pulling for Collins. But big men are at a disadvantage in a dunk contest.


But, I'm predicting Miles Bridges with a dominating performance. He's got massive hops, tweener size and will be reppin' the hometown team.

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[Spud2nique]

Odds for dunk contest...Collins the fav wow.

http://bleacherreport.com/post/sports-odds/85c0cd74-e3a8-4e94-8102-a5b0f5523d08

[Spud2nique]

Hamidou Diallo at +400 is a good deal. He can’t possibly be the underdog this kid was genetically engineered for the dunk contest lol.

[macd-gm]

I honestly think every dunk he does should be a different type of alley oop from Trae.

[Atlanta Hawk Fan]

Hamidou Diallo at +400 is a good deal. He can’t possibly be the underdog this kid was genetically engineered for the dunk contest lol.

Agree. He isn't a great player but can be a great dunker.

[dms269]

Would love to see some respect given to Smith and Nique somehow.

[Duff Man]

He needs to whip out the Josh Smith jersey.

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For the love of god, please keep as far of a distance from Josh Smith as possible.

[Duff Man]

Would love to see some respect given to Smith and Nique somehow.

He should have them put '12' on the shot clock and start jacking up threes. Then have someone rebound the brick so he can watch them get a free dunk on the other end while he complains to the ref.

[Jamaaliver]

Josh Smith...been gone 6 years and is still the most polarizing Hawk player of all time.

[Jamaaliver]

This is the jersey Collins should rock:

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[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

Love it!

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[Jamaaliver]

For the archives:

John Collins’ Dunk Contest Failure Was Historically Accurate



Dunk contests are freewheeling events, but there’s one rule that should be taken seriously: If you’re going to use a prop, don’t break the prop. Atlanta Hawks forward John Collins went afoul of this edict during Saturday’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest when he attempted to leap over a scale model of the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer and wound up breaking two large sections off the plane.

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All-Star Weekend is in Charlotte, North Carolina, so the dunk was a nod to Kitty Hawk and the state’s aviation tradition. (Collins’ homage to flight also included men dressed as the Tuskegee Airmen who stood around the model plane.) The judges gave the attempt a score of 42 (out of 50), which, considering grade inflation in modern dunk contests, might as well have been a zero. Collins scored too low to qualify for the final round, and he seemed quite upset about it.

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(It should be noted that Collins’ first dunk, which was was actually pretty cool, only earned a 40 from the judges for some reason.)

Spoiler:

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Any time you dress up in a scarf and flight cap to leap over a scale model of an aircraft, you’re taking a risk. Collins put himself out there, and plenty of jokes were made at his expense.

Make fun of him all you want, but his dunk was an accurate representation of the Wright brothers’ first successes with powered flight on December 17, 1903.

Slate

[dms269]

I fell asleep during it. I told my wife that I had a dream that Collins put on old timey aviator gear and tried to jump over a cardboard plane.

She informed me that it wasn't a dream.

[Jamaaliver]

An abridged version:

The inside story on John Collins’ dunk contest night and his plane crash



Sitting in the third row of a black shuttle bus, Collins wondered out loud what he could have done differently about his Saturday night in the NBA’s slam dunk contest.

The poor execution of his tribute dunk to the Wright brothers and the Tuskegee Airmen lent itself into easy jokes, too.

The presentation that millions saw Saturday night was not all Collins’ idea. He was skeptical at first and thought the entirety of the act was too sophisticated for a dunk contest. He originally had approached NBA officials with a plan to leap over an object that hadn’t been jumped over before in a dunk contest. As the two parties discussed options, a plane was settled on. In theory, it was perfect because of North Carolina’s aviation history. Collins, however, didn’t have control of the size of the plane as the construction of the plane was handled by the league.

...league representatives also suggested he include a nod to the Tuskegee Airmen for Black History Month.

It fell flat. Collins was the only participant to complete both of his dunks on the first try. For that, he finished in last place.

Collins was the only one of the four participants to not have someone else be directly involved in a dunk.

“It lacks in the creativity department, but it adds hype and helps out your popularity,” Collins said specifically of using celebrities in dunks. “It definitely helps your score, but creativity-wise, it’s definitely a cop-out. It’s like, ‘Whoever is on the sideline, I’ll just jump over them.’ You do it, and you complete it — it looks nice, and it’s likely a 50, but you’ve seen it before.”

But he doesn’t look back on Saturday with regret. It was a dream of his to be on that stage.

The Athletic

[kg01]

An abridged version:

The inside story on John Collins’ dunk contest night and his plane crash



Sitting in the third row of a black shuttle bus, Collins wondered out loud what he could have done differently about his Saturday night in the NBA’s slam dunk contest.

The poor execution of his tribute dunk to the Wright brothers and the Tuskegee Airmen lent itself into easy jokes, too.

The presentation that millions saw Saturday night was not all Collins’ idea. He was skeptical at first and thought the entirety of the act was too sophisticated for a dunk contest. He originally had approached NBA officials with a plan to leap over an object that hadn’t been jumped over before in a dunk contest. As the two parties discussed options, a plane was settled on. In theory, it was perfect because of North Carolina’s aviation history. Collins, however, didn’t have control of the size of the plane as the construction of the plane was handled by the league.

...league representatives also suggested he include a nod to the Tuskegee Airmen for Black History Month.

It fell flat. Collins was the only participant to complete both of his dunks on the first try. For that, he finished in last place.

Collins was the only one of the four participants to not have someone else be directly involved in a dunk.

“It lacks in the creativity department, but it adds hype and helps out your popularity,” Collins said specifically of using celebrities in dunks. “It definitely helps your score, but creativity-wise, it’s definitely a cop-out. It’s like, ‘Whoever is on the sideline, I’ll just jump over them.’ You do it, and you complete it — it looks nice, and it’s likely a 50, but you’ve seen it before.”

But he doesn’t look back on Saturday with regret. It was a dream of his to be on that stage.

The Athletic

Glad he went on the offensive. He ain't wrong. Would've been easy for him to drag out a rapper and say, "Uh stand here and do the same thing fifty-leven other dudes have done. Wait, wait .. not you ... gimme him, he got more twit followers."

His attempt did fall flat but .. he still ain't wrong.

[Jamaaliver]

Glad he went on the offensive. He ain't wrong. Would've been easy for him to drag out a rapper and say, "Uh stand here and do the same thing fifty-leven other dudes have done. Wait, wait .. not you ... gimme him, he got more twit followers."

His attempt did fall flat but .. he still ain't wrong.

For better or for worse...this is now a part of Hawks lore.

Spoiler:

Collins also couldn’t get the aviation goggles properly to fit on his head, and he ended up tossing them aside but not before cameras showed him goofily holding up the goggles on his face.

And I will never get tired of that goofy looking pic.