I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Triangle All-Stars Slam Dunk Challege on April 29 along with my good friend (and TCN correspondent) Langdon Morris. Langdon filmed while I sat back, wrote down the scores, and for once got to enjoy watching the likes of Josh Davis, Earnest Ross and Garrius Adams as a fan and not a reporter.

The contest, which also featured Apex's Weston Murphy, Cary's Parker Stephenson and Leesville Road's Harrison George, was an excellent one and you can watch it in its entirety by clicking here (big thanks to Josh Harrell for editing the film yet again).

A learned a few things from this event. 1- Josh Davis is very creative in his dunks. 2- Earnest Ross can throw it down much, much harder than I saw him this year when he always went for the two-hand flush. 3- Parker Stephenson can flat-out leap for a... you know the rest. 4- Harrison George may be able to throw down great dunks, but he did the same one twice in the first two rounds and that cost him. 5- Garrius Adams had been sick all week, Wednesday was his first day back in school, and it was clear he wasn't 100%. 6- Weston Murphy, while still a great player who has matched the likes of Davis and Melvin Tabb rebound-for-rebound and point-for-point during the year, is simply not cut out for a dunk contest. He missed so many, we cut his "dunk" sessions out of the video.

Before you watch, here's how the scoring evened out.

First Round: George 42, Stephenson 40, Adams 41, Murphy 35, Ross 49, Davis 45

Second Round: George 40, Stephenson 47, Adams 49, Murphy 39, Ross 48, Davis 48

Third Round: Stephenson 50, Adams 44, Ross 45, Davis 45

Fourth Round: Stephenson 0, Ross 50, Davis 50

Final Round: Ross defeated Davis 47-42