There's A White Guy In The Slam Dunk Contest

Fair warning: the lineup for the dunk contest at All-Star weekend is out, and it is uninspiring. You've got Indiana's Paul George, Minnesota's Derrick Williams, New York's Iman Shumpert ( assisted by Jeremy Lin), and Houston's Chase Budinger. The superstars won't do these kinds of competitions any more, but at least the NBA was wise enough to stick Kevin Love in the Three-Point contest to give it car crash appeal. With the dunk contest, we're forced to content ourselves with Lin's peripheral inclusion, and a white dude.

Budinger isn't some affirmative action selection. He has hops. Like, serious hops. He has just a good a chance of winning this thing as anyone else (which is to say, who the fuck knows, since it's a fan vote and direct democracy is a failure). This could be a watershed moment for all white people everywhere—finally, our own Jeremy Lin!

White men have been banned from the dunk contest since 2005, when Chris Andersen set their cause back 30 years.