Dwight Howard Will Not Participate in the Slam Dunk Contest

Eric Gay/AP Photo

After participating in the last three dunk contests, Dwight Howard has decided not to participate in the 2010 competition.

Howard, the 2008 winner and 2009 runner-up, will give way to defending champion Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shannon Brown and either DeMar DeRozan or Toronto or Eric Gordon of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Dwight Howard has good reasons not to enter the conest.

It’s no surprise that Howard won’t compete this year. He’s said the contest takes up a lot of energy that could be used later in the season and in the playoffs.

“I’m getting old, man,” Howard told the Orlando Sentinel in December. “They’ve got to stop grabbing me in the games so I can jump. I’ve got to keep my legs. It’s kind of tough. I don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but I think it’s time for us to see more guys get out there and show their stuff. Half the time, you can’t really show everything you’ve got in the dunk contest anyways. I would love to see a lot of people in it.”

It’s good to see that Howard is putting the team first but unfortunately the contest will be missing it’s most entertaining contestant.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)