The Slam Dunk Contest Must Now Happen Without Jeremy Lin And A Couch

Jeremy Lin was all set to help Knicks teammate Iman Shumpert at Saturday's NBA slam dunk contest. But because Shumpert has missed the team's last two games with knee tendinitis, he had to bow out. Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz will take Shumpert's place. And now that he's out, Shumpert revealed to the New York Post what he and Lin had been planning:

Yes, he and Jeremy Lin had talked about doing a dunk in which Shumpert would vault over a couch - the symbol of Lin's humble sleeping conditions.

"He was going to help me out,'' Shumpert told The Post. "Once my knee was so sore, I started thinking about it: ‘Am I going to be able to jump over the couch?' All kinds of things to think about.''

The dunk contest is now down to Evans, the Pacers' Paul George, the Timberwolves' Derrick Williams, and the Rockets' Chase Budinger. The couch was a good idea, but as symbolic props for Lin go, I can think of a few better things:

• A copy editor

• Chiang Kai-shek's coffin

• A stack of Orientalisms

• The Taiwan Strait

• The UN building

• The Dongfeng 16

• The Spanish national basketball team

• Gedde Watanabe

• A ping-pong table

• Amy Chua

• Amy Chua's kids

[ via]