Shaedon Sharpe opts out of NBA Dunk contest

Stop me if this sounds familiar. After committing to compete in the NBA Slam Dunk contest scheduled for this Saturday, Shaedon Sharpe has decided to sit out, citing the desire to instead, “focus on the second half of the Trail Blazers’ season.” Evidently, the two are mutually exclusive.

Shams Charania broke the news last week, but it flew under the radar, overshadowed by many high-profile trades at the deadline, some featuring former Kentucky players.

Portland’s rookie high-flyer has thrown down some monster dunks this season (the kind that would have been helpful to this year’s Kentucky team) but has struggled to find consistency with the rest of his game. Sharpe is averaging 7.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in roughly 20 minutes per contest off the bench.

Similar to his time in Lexington, Internet speculation as to why Sharpe is backtracking on his commitment to take the court ranges from conspiratorial to logical, with the most prevailing speculation that he is upset about being snubbed for a spot on the Rising Stars roster.

Taking Sharpe’s place is New York Knicks big man, Jericho Sims. He will join Houston’s KJ Martin, New Orleans’ Trey Murphy, and G League’s Mac McClung as the participants. If you’re asking yourself, “Who?” you’re not the only one.

It is easy to dunk on Sharpe for yet another instance of sitting out of playing basketball after pledging to compete, but his decision also speaks to the downfallen state of the NBA Slam Dunk contest. What used to be the most prestigious pinnacle of All-Star weekend has become an event fit for a no-name. Former winners include Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwight Howard, not to mention Kentucky’s John Wall and more recently Hamidou Diallo. Now the league is plucking guys from the G-League.

Oh well, at least we’ll always have Sharpe’s Kentucky warmup dunk highlight reel.