Question of the Day: Who will win the NBA slam dunk competition?

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Writers from around the Tribune Co. weigh in on the topic. Check back throughout the day for more responses, vote in the poll and leave a comment explaining your choice.

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel

Well, that’s an easy one? After all there only are four choices: Blake Griffin, What’s His Name, The Other Guy and That Fourth Guy They Just Added.

Or, if we’re being honest: Nobody.

The Slam Dunk Championship has been the Sham Dunk Championship for years, a tired competition where Nate Robinson gets retries until he actually reaches the rim. Even at his caped best, Dwight Howard was forced to throw the ball through the rim when he came up a few inches short.

When a shooting event featuring a WNBA player, a retired player and a fringe current star proves more entertaining, it says all that needs to be said about the moribund state of the dunking contest.

The real question is who finishes as runner-up to Griffin. For our money, we’ll go with What’s His Name.

[Updated at 10:10 a.m.:

K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune

I’m probably going to want to dunk myself in a water vat when this prediction goes awry, but I’m going with the upset and picking DeMar DeRozan over Blake Griffin in the slam dunk contest.

You know anyone who is coached by Darryl “The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam” Dawkins will have something creative to showcase. And DeRozan acquitted himself well in his second-place finish last year.

Look, Griffin is an amazing dunker with easily the best dunks of this NBA season. Remember his dribble, spin and vicious dunk past the Knicks’ Danilo Gallinari in November? I do. But can he replicate his stunning blend of athleticism and power in a staged setting? Probably. I just think DeRozan has a chance to do it better. And judges sometimes are more impressed by dunks from wing players as opposed to power players.]

[Updated at 2:57 p.m.:

Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel

This year’s slam dunk contest is Blake Griffin’s to lose. Already producing the NBA’s most exciting rookie season in years, Griffin has the explosiveness, the momentum and the “wow” factor to win Saturday’s contest.

But most important of all, he’ll have the hometown crowd on his side.

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, who won the 2008 competition, said, “There’s no new dunk that anybody can make unless they’re doing a double windmill or something like that. Everybody’s seen every dunk.” Howard’s correct — to a point.

No one in this year’s event dunks with the ferocity that Griffin does. “His dunks are vicious,” Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said of Griffin earlier this season. “He throws the ball down with more force than anybody I’ve seen.”

That’s what it’ll take this year: power. That and the home crowd.

Griffin has both on his side.]