Nate Robinson, Controversy, Abound

We can't even have an All-Star Saturday Night without officiating controversy anymore. Last night in the Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk Contest, 5'9" Nate Robinson took down Andre Iguodala, but not without one of the biggest and most important officiating controversies of our time. Or, maybe not.

In the sudden death dunk-off, it took Nate Robinson 14 tries to get his dunk down. Just for comparison's sake, it took Chris Andersen 8 tries last year when he made himself a permanent subject of ridicule, and he was probably higher than a giraffe's ass.

Iguodala went next, and threw down a nice, but somewhat pedestrian dunk, and it looked to be tied again. But according to TNT commentator Kevin Harlan, one of the judges changed their vote from a 10 to a 9, giving Robinson a one-point win. The folks at The 700 Level are not happy about it, and you probably shouldn't read their invective if you're a little person.

There's no question that Andre Iguodala had the best dunk of the night. He stood way back beyond the baseline, took a pass from Allen Iverson that bounced off the back of the glass, caught it, swooped underneath the rack, had to bob and weave so he wouldn't clank his head off the board, and then dunked it on the other side. One of the best five dunks ever.

And Dirk Nowitzki won the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout, but only after he was given a pass into the finals when he was given credit for a moneyball that he didn't shoot until well after the buzzer sounded in the first round.

I'm looking forward to one day having a sporting even without some kind of officiating/judging controversy.

(Edit: A reader tells us that the judge who changed his score was none other that Kenny "The Jet" Smith.)

(Edit again: Another reader points us to the video here that shows none of the judges changed their scores. Kevin Harlan is evidently on crack.)

Midgets Suck [The 700 Level] Iguodala's dunk show finishes second to Robinson [Mercury News]