Dunk Contest on its way back

For several years now, the NBA's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest has been a miss.

The lack of big names has been compounded by the lack of creativity among the dunkers.

Not so Saturday in New Orleans and, if you're an NBA fan, that's a good thing. The dunk contest usually is the highlight of All-Star Weekend. Thus, a bad dunk contest usually meant a bad weekend.

This year, Gerald Green (pictured) and champion Dwight Howard took the bar and raised it. Not necessarily to the 12 feet Howard and fellow competitor Rudy Gay wanted the basket raised to.

Green's second dunk may have taken the (cup)cake. The defending dunk champ placed a cupcake on the bracket behind the rim, lit the candle then blew it out while throwing down a vicious two-hander.

Howard, not to be outdone, broke out a Superman cape and perhaps the most jawdroppingly powerful dunk of the night as teammate Jameer Nelson threw the ball over the backboard. Howard caught the ball over his head in midflight and threw down a tomahawk jam in one violent motion.

Say what you will about the NBA regular season, for one night, the league's best put on a worthy display of entertainment.