The dunk contest, which featured Dwight Howard defeating Gerald Green in the final round. happened last February. The blogosphere is still buzzing about it.
File photo by Bill Haber, the Associated Press

• Krolik of FreeDarko invokes the Dunk Contest, and the Superman Dunk in particular, in this must-read piece on form, function, and high-school-to-the-League players:

  When [Dwight Howard] plays, the court pulsates with the power of dunk. And yet his dunk contest was marked by triumphs of style rather than substance, with his signature dunk being a show of smoke and mirrors while THE BIRTHDAY CAKE was, like Howard's tragically futile sticker dunk, a demonstration of substance-as-style, and the contest ended with [Gerald] Green doing a ridiculously difficult dunk that didn't photograph well (seriously, try jumping off a hardwood floor in socks), while Howard did a two-handed windmill using a toy hoop.

  Krolik also argues that Dwight, Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James, etc. benefitted from coming straight out of high school: "[B]y being allowed to find the music of their own games, the HS guys eventually found an off-beat form of truth as yet unrivaled by any other category of player." Bookmark FreeDarko. You'll thank me later.

• More on Dwight and dunking: the Superman dunk is matched up against the aforementioned BIRTHDAY CAKE dunk in the Ball Don't Lie Bedlam Tournament... and it's losing. Will someone knock some sense into these Yahoo! readers?
• Speaking of knocking some sense into people, check out the comments in this thread at Denton's board. Stan Van Gundy told reporters today that he wants Dwight to be more vocal and aggressive when asking for the ball on offense. One reader calls Stan "a little troll who likes the media limelight," then later adds that Doc Rivers is a better coach.
• The ubiquitous Tom Ziller sorta name-drops J.J. Redick in today's The Rotation piece at FanHouse. Check the "electability" chart at the end of the entry: Ziller pegs J.J. as "conservative" and "not electable", and similar to -- gulp -- Pat Riley in both those respects. So that's why Stan is so reluctant to play J.J...

Don't forget the game thread for the Magic's battle with the Spurs tonight.

The Magic's game against the Clippers tips off in 20 minutes or so, so I'm right up against the deadline here. Let's get to it:

• The Magic's new party line? They need to get tougher.
  • John Denton
  • Tim Povtak

  The Magic have needed an enforcer-type guy for years. We don't need a thug like Bruce Bowen, but we do need someone who isn't afraid to dish out a little extra punishment when opponents try to attack the basket. Unfortunately, we've been reluctant in the past to acquire guys with less-than-stellar reputations. Hopefully, Otis Smith is not being disingenuous when he says, "[W]e've got to have a nasty about us."

• Occurred as I was typing this post: J.J. Redick is back with the Magic, says John Denton. Redick left the team to be with his brother David, who underwent surgery on his spine on Monday.
• Hal Boedeker, the Orlando Sentinel's TV critic, tells us that Hedo Turkoglu will be featured on NBA Access this Saturday at 1 PM (ABC). It's great to see that Hedo is getting the national media attention he deserves.
• This story is a few days old, but Mike Bianchi had a chat with John Weisbrod, the former Magic GM not-so-affectionately referred to as "The Hockey Guy." It's a fascinating read, so check it out before the Sentinel archives it. Remember that Weisbrod drafted Dwight Howard, traded for Tony Battie, signed Hedo Turkoglu, and traded for the rights to Jameer Nelson during his tenure. Indeed, Weisbrod, not Otis Smith, is directly responsible for acquiring four of the Magic's five starters from last season. Of course, he also re-hired Brian Hill, traded Tracy McGrady for Steve Francis, and traded Cuttino Mobley for Doug Christie. But let's not forget the good things Weisbrod did for us.
• Also a few days old: the Houston Rockets waived swingman Gerald Green on Saturday. Some Magic fans covet Green and think the Magic should make room for him on their roster; check out the discussion at Denton's board. It's not happening, guys. First, since the Rockets waived him after the March 1st deadline, he'd be ineligible for our playoff roster. Cutting one of our guys, even Pat Garrity, leaves us with only fourteen eligible players on a twelve-man active roster. It doesn't make sense to cut a guy who can play for another guy who can't. If the Magic are indeed desperate for a freakishly athletic player -- and they'd have to be desperate to sign Green, considering that three teams have given up on him already -- they can invite him to training camp this summer.
• Many thanks to adamosthegreek at MagicMadness for posting this link to the NBA Dance Team Bracket. I guess the League needs something to put up against March Madness. The Magic's dancers are matched-up against the Cavaliers' right now. Head on over there to vote the Magic Dancers to victory.
• Wow. That was corny. I'll quit while I'm only a bit behind.

• The Magic and the Kings keep getting linked by trade rumors. Ron Artest to Orlando? Shareef Abdur-Rahim to Orlando? But Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty proposes another: Mike Bibby. He looked around the league and assessed Bibby's relative value to other teams, as well as what those other teams can offer in return, and classified Orlando as a team that intrigues him. He explains,

  "Bibby fits the gunner-around-Dwight philosophy and Orlando has the expirings and young talent to pull it off. Jameer Nelson is a bit of a problem, though."

  I don't think Bibby is such a great fit here, honestly. He's in the same shoot-first mold as Jameer Nelson, and for whatever reason the team has played better with pass-first Carlos Arroyo at the helm this season. So no, I'm not sure that he's the answer, especially when our biggest need is a power forward who can defend.

• Speaking of trades, the good folks at Hardwood Paroxysm put Carlos Arroyo on their list of "20 Players To Be Freed from Captivity." Here's how they explain it:

  [Arroyo]'s playing too well to bench, but not well enough to put in front of Nelson's big fat contract. This is in a league where Jason Williams starts for a team. This must be remedied. The Magic will be happier. They can put Nelson and the contract in the slot and let him run the show.

  I disagree, frankly. Trading Arroyo leaves us with only Keyon Dooling as the backup point guard, and that's not his natural position anyway. Keep Carlos here, please.

• Keith Bogans' line from last night: 8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 butt-pat.
• Dwight Howard will once again participate in the Sprite Slam Dunk competition. He'll face-off against Gerald Green, the defending champion from the Minnesota Timberwolves; Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies; and Jamario Moon from the Toronto Raptors. After getting robbed last year, Dwight is back with a vengeance, and has told the Orlando Sentinel's Brian Schmitz that he has a plan. Henry Abbott, of TrueHoop fame, writes, "isn't Howard breaking some kind of unwritten rule by admitting that he's taking the contest so seriously?"
• Str8 Hoops has this compilation of nicknames for NBA players. Oddly enough, "Turk" is not included next to Hedo Turkoglu's name, but "Glu" is. Does that mean we have a "Sweet Lew" (Rashard Lewis) and a "Sweet Glu"? (Hat-tip: Kelly Dwyer)