Dunk contest

By Jason Yellin
ESPNET SportsZone

Finley threw the ball in the air, did a cartwheel, grabbed the ball and attempted his slam. Although it didn't go down, he showed inventiveness that has not been seen in the dunk contest in recent years.

"It was the most creative dunk attempt I have ever seen," said Hall of Famer Walt Frazier, one of the contest's five judges. "We would have given him 10's for sure. Especially tonight it would have been the most creative dunk."

But Finley couldn't take full credit for inventing his move. Following the event he gave some thanks to a former teammate.

"I came up with the idea from Rex Chapman," Finley said about the two-time Slam Dunk Contest participant. "He was doing it in practice. So I took his."

Second-place finisher Chris Carr added that he'd seen a similar dunk as well. "I saw a dunk like that one time in a college dunk contest," Carr said. "Lorenzo Orr of USC did a cartwheel with the ball in his hand and jumped and dunked it off the cartwheel."

Regardless of its origins, though, the dunk garnered a 33.0 on Saturday. As a result, the 6-foot-7, 23-year-old finished third in the competition.

"If I would have made it, it would have been a 50," said Finley, who was the dunk contest's runner-up to Brent Barry last year. "But it's if, if, if.

"I think if it would have gone down, it would have brought the house down. It was very, very creative. I think that was one of the things that the crowd and judges were looking for -- artistry, creativity along with some athleticism. I think that dunk brought that."

Eventual champion Kobe Bryant knew Finley was devising a plan to capture the title as a repeat competitor.

"I knew Michael had something up his sleeve," Bryant said. "In the locker room he was kind of quiet. I knew he had something, but I didn't know what it was. I have never seen anything else like it. I'm not going to try it."

Hall of Famer George Gervin, who judged with Frazier, thinks Finley might have had an equilibrium problem which caused the miss.

"I think he got dizzy by the time he got up to dunk," Gervin said. "It was one of the most creative dunk I've ever seen."

Second-place finisher Chris Carr agreed.

"Once you get up (from the spin) you have to find the ball, it's pretty hard to do," the Timberwolves guard said. "You toss it in the air. You have to jump, find the ball, and find the rim. People don't know how hard that dunk is."

That difficulty quotient cost the Mavericks' second-year player who might not have prepared properly for it.

"I only practiced it one time," Finley explained. "That one time, I got it down, but it wasn't in front of 20,000 fans."

However, with a background in cartwheels, it wasn't a completely new routine for Finley.

"I did some gymnastics while I was growing up," he said. "I did some butterflies then and I could also do cartwheels and flips."

As for seeing Finley attempt that cartwheel dunk in future contests, forget it. He has hung up his All-Star Saturday dunking hi-tops.

"I officially retired today," Finley said. "I have retired from the Slam Dunk Contest. Next year I want to play on Sunday, not Saturday."