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SALT LAKE CITY -- Jeremy Evans was a late entry into the 2012 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest thanks to an injury to the New York Knicks' Iman Shumpert. He made up for the early omission by winning the contest with a dunk that stole the show.
"The Human Pogo-stick" made his presence known in a contest with some other under-the-radar players. The other contestants included rookie Paul George of the Pacers, Chase Budinger of the Rockets and rookie Derrick Williams of the Timberwolves.
Evans' first dunk was a fairly plain dunk that used a camera to record his view. It left much of the Twitter world looking elsewhere for a champion. His second dunk however, brought the house down.
With fellow-Jazz player Gordon Hayward holding two balls and sitting in a chair Evans proceeded to jump over Hayward and dunk both balls at once. This let Jazz PR man Jonathan Rinehart and Salt City hoops' Spencer Hall quoting "Dumb and Dumber" with a "and totally redeemed yourself."
The official ESPN twitter account left this message, "Whoa. Everyone meet Jeremy Evans."
Budinger used a blindfold, George used black lights and Williams used Ricky Rubio off the backboard, but in the end Evans took home the crown.
John Hollinger tweeted, "Williams 360 dunk off the side board was pretty sweet. I rate it second behind Evans'."
The last dunk for Evans included some theatrics with Kevin Hart delivering a Malone jersey, which Evans put on then jumped over Hart with Malone's signature hand-behind-the- head pose.
Scott Garrard of KFAN tweeted, "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Congrats Jeremy!"
The second year forward got support and was pushed into the contest with help from Jazz fans using the Twitter hashtag #letjeremydunk.
Jody Genessy summed up the pinnacle of the campaign with his tweet, "Jeremy Evans. Dunk Champion of the Universe."
This wraps up the Jazz's portion of All-Star weekend after Derrick Favors and Hayward participated in the Rising Stars Challenge.
