The NBA is going young and under the radar for this year's Sprite Slam Dunk contest during the All-Star weekend on Feb. 24-26, and two former Arizona Wildcats are part of the field.
Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams and Houston Rockets forward Chase Budinger will go at it, and while it won't be as star-studded without names like Blake Griffin and JaVale McGee, there's at least a reason to watch for Wildcat fans.
Joining the duo in the four-player field will be Paul George of the Indiana Pacers and Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks. No, those names don't have any resounding oo-ahh factor either, but George has been quietly rising into one of the most exciting and versatile young players out there. Meanwhile, Shumpert, at the very least, is a solid athlete -- the catch with him is that recent NBA sensation Jeremy Lin could be lobbing him alley-oop passes.
But back to the two former Wildcats.
While Budinger might very well be the most underwhelming of the four-person competition, just know that at least he'll bring his A-game.
He's done this thing before. Back in 2006, he was the runner up in the McDonald's All-American Dunk Contest to current NBA player Gerald Henderson.More of a finesse dunker, the guess here is that he'll at least come prepared.
Williams will be an equally exciting watch. While we don't know what to expect out of his creativity -- did he even do the dunk contests for Red-Blue scrimmages? -- we do know that he has that "it" factor in games, as evidenced by the lead highlight clip in this story, which happened just last night.
There's this one too, my favorite, although there's too many at this point to choose from.
Who do you think is the favorite to win the NBA Sprite Slam Dunk contest?