LeBryan Nash – Slam Dunk Champ

Everyone is all up in arms over LeBryan Nash’s 2011 Slam Dunk title. Nash is trending on Twitter and Cowboy fans are falling all over their digital selves right now (just Twitter search #okstate to see what I mean).

Nash won the event with a nice bounce pass windmill (in the orange cowboy hat), although it didn’t seem worthy of a national dunk contest title to me. His one-handed windmill was far better. Don’t even get me started on the “jumping” over another human dunk, the Fredric Weis dunk if you will. Not only did he balance himself with one hand but he used that hand to propel him towards the goal. Weak.

Austin Rivers is unbelievable, I really can’t believe Nash’s dunks were good enough to win this contest, especially with Rivers in the throw back and PJ Hairston’s Fred Jones impression. Oh, and Plumlee part 3 looks like a drunk deer on ice when he runs, no?

The dunk contest title is great, but does it mean anything? Here are your last 10 winners:

David Lee (2001) – Solid career at Florida, one of the top 50 players in the NBA. I’d absolutely take his college game at OSU right now.

Carmelo Anthony (2002) – He’s good at basketball.

LeBron James (2003) – See above.

Candace Parker (2004) – I actually think Ford could find a spot for her in the rotation.

Gerald Green (2005) – Stop me if you’ve heard this…

Gerald Henderson (2006) – Terrific career at Duke including a First-Team All-ACC nod and 12th overall selection in the 2009 NBA draft.

Blake Griffin (2007) – Yeah, that worked out I guess.

Demar DeRozan (2008) – 13 and 6 his freshman year at SC, trust me when I say we’ll kill for that from Nash next year.

Avery Bradley (2009) – Currently not playing for the Celtics. Mildly attractive mini-career at Texas, mostly underwhelming.

Josh Selby (2010) – 8 ppg this year for the Jayhawks after sitting out the first 9 games. I thought he’d contribute a lot more than he did.

So the slam dunk champion’s career has been a mixed bag over the last 10 years. The good news is that these are all guys you’ve heard of who had at least a decent amount of influence and success on their college squads.

I’m not saying don’t be fired up about LeBryan, I’m just telling you to be cautiously optimistic. What you saw last night could be all he is: a showy dunker who likes to flaunt his highlights (and hair) on TV. Is there more? Maybe. Am I on edge about the whole thing? Absolutely.

As for the orange cowboy hat? Already played out, let’s not let that last too much longer. Maybe he can replace it with a Big 12 champions cap this time next season…

Nash spoke with ESPN afterward and said he plans on leading O-State to a national title someday. That’s encouraging to hear but we have a LONG way to go. EASILY the best part of this video (and really this whole post) is Mike Slocum making Blake Griffin jokes and not knowing where he’s going with them. I would bet my retirement account he and Nash never exchange another word in either of their lifetimes.