Glenn Robinson III will be representing the Indiana Pacers in the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans.
Glenn Robinson III may have lost his spot in the starting lineup for the Indiana Pacers, but he earned one in the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans next month.
The news was broke by The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.
Indiana's Glenn Robinson III (@GRIII) will participate in the Slam Dunk contest on All-Star weekend, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 25, 2017
For fans who don’t watch many Pacers games, they might ask what a guy averaging 7.7 points and 5.3 rebounds as starter is doing at All-Star weekend, but all they need to do is look at the tape to see why Robinson deserves a spot.
He has only played limited minutes in his three NBA seasons, but going back to college, Robinson never struggled to elevate. According to RealGM, Robinson has 11 dunks this season in under 1,000 minutes on the court.
The last time an Indiana Pacers player was in the dunk contest was 2014 with Paul George, who also took part in 2012.
The competition will be tough, though, as he’ll likely face Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon. The duo put together arguably the best dunk contest of all time last year in Toronto, bring life that had been lacking in recent years.
It will be tough for Robinson to match those two, but nonetheless, it is a chance for him and the Indiana Pacers to get some love at one of the NBA’s marquee events.
Glenn Robinson III’s season has been up and down, going from the bench to a starter and back so far this season, but this is a bit of a reward for him as he made the Pacers a better team once he was inserted into the starting lineup.
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Good luck to Robinson on February 18th in New Orleans.