Blake Griffin will take part in the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk contest according to the Los Angeles Times, Larry Bird has decided to unretire in order to keep pace with Dirk Nowitzki on the all-time scoring charts, and LeBron James swears he’ll compete if he can wear his sunglasses while he’s dunking.

Well, maybe the latter two statements above are not (and definitely shouldn’t) true, but the part about Blake Griffin is and now we all wait in anticipation to see if LeBron James and other stars will join the party.

WATCH A HIGHLIGHT CLIP OF BLAKE GRIFFIN - CLICK HERE

I’ve been keeping an eye on this situation for quite some time now and for the first time in years I’m anticipating All-Star weekend.

Griffin is not just a dunker, of course. He currently has racked up 21-straight double-doubles and is on pace to become the first rookie since Shaq to average 20-points and 12-rebounds in their rookie campaign.

Dwight Howard has already “retired” from the competition and it appears Nate Robinson will decline an invite as well, leaving us with a pretty odd list of competitors for this year’s jam-session.

According to ESPN the other contestants so far will be:

  • Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks

  • Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder

  • JaVale McGee, Washington Wizards

Wow… that isn’t a particularly daunting line-up of dunkers, is it?

For the first time in what seems like forever a legit young star is taking his throw-down talents to the dunk contest and I hope that this is a clear signal to other jam artists that it’s time to stop being “cautious” and compete for the fans!

LeBron James has indicated that he desires to enter but isn’t sure if it’s worth the risk. You can check out what he said by CLICKING HERE.

You know what? I go running every morning and by doing so could possibly get hit by a huge, self-driven, manical SUV in the process but I still lace them up and hit the road! There is risk involved in everything, LeBron!

You should know about risky “Decisions”, right? Ok, that was pretty terrible, but you get my point.

James should enter the contest for two reasons:

  • It would absolutely be the most hyped and anticipated contest since Jordan and Nique faced off

  • Entering the contest would at least help James’ PR image, regardless of whether he wins or loses.

I watched Dwight Howard lose to Nate Robinson last season and was incredibly disappointed in the contest once again but don’t think Griffin will disappoint this year.

He just needs a couple more NBA stars to compete with.

Want an example of what that might be like? For those of you who have never seen footage of Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins jamming in the 1980s I present a clip of Jordan and Wilkins duking it out: CLICK HERE to watch the clip.

Who, besides LeBron, should join the fun now? Personally, I want to see an Amare Stoudemire - Blake Griffin duel. Now THAT would be freakin’ awesome.

[email protected]

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/Buckets17