Just had to break away from the Obama freight train . . .

From ESPN:

For the second succesive year, Dwight Howard's proposal to have the rim raised to 12 feet during the annual dunk contest at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans has been rejected by the NBA.

The league office confirmed to ESPN.com on Tuesday that the Orlando Magic's All-Star center has again formally requested to have the rim hiked from the regulation 10 feet to 12 feet for at least one of his dunks, as Howard continues to seek ways to prove that his leaping ability is no less impressive that the hops possessed by shorter rivals.

Yet as with last February in Las Vegas -- when Howard was planning to wow judges with a 360 dunk at 12 feet and an attempt at 11½ feet which called for him to shift the ball between his legs in mid-air -- league officials balked.

They've ruled that changing the height of the rim, while easily done mid-contest with the help of hydraulics, clashes with their intent to apply as many standard NBA rules to All-Star Weekend contests as possible.

This is just stupid. The NBA is concerned about "applying as many standard NBA rules to All-Star Weekend contests as possible?" I mean WTF? Honestly there aren't too many unique ways to dunk a basketball that haven't already been done. If I wanted standard NBA rules I would just swing by the Verizon Center and watch the Wizards. In fact I wouldn't mind seeing the NBA raise the rims to 11 feet for regular season games. At least when a player dunked it might mean something. . .

~Viggy