Making the fan-friendly NBA All-Star Game weekend festivities fan-friendlier, the league is giving fans a chance to choose a rookie player for the annual Sprite Slam Dunk contest.
Fans can vote through Jan. 14 for one of three rookies, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Joe Alexander, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Rudy Fernandez or the Oklahoma City Thunders’ Russell Westbrook. Fans who vote will be automatically entered in a sweepstakes to win a trip for two to NBA All-Star 2009 in Phoenix, including tickets to the big game on Feb. 15.
The winning player will compete against defending slam dunk champ Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay, and the New York Knicks’ Nate Robinson, who won the 2006 contest.
The three rookie candidates will post Web videos explaining why they should be selected as the fourth slam dunk contender. Fans can watch the videos on NBA.com, YouTube, Facebook, and Yahoo! Sports through Feb. 14.
The contest to pick one of this year’s dunkers is part of Sprite’s “They Dunk. You Decide” campaign, which debuted in advance of last year’s NBA All-Star contests. The other contests include the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, the PlayStation® Skills Challenge and the Haier Shooting Stars.
Fans also pick the winner of the Slam Dunk contest. The two dunkers with the highest first round scores will advance to the final round. In the final round, fan voting polls will open via SMS TXT message and at NBA.com. Combined results from the text and online voting will decide who takes the slam dunk title.
Pro hoops fans can also vote on the NBA site on the players who will appear in the NBA All-Star Game, with a companion 2K9 sweepstakes giving away a grand prize of a trip to the game, season tickets to the winner’s local NBA team and a roster spot in next year’s 2K10 NBA video game.
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