Saved By the Blog - Est. 2004

Chicago's Tyrus Thomas was selected to participate in the dunk contest on Feb. 17.  A pretty cool honor, right?  The NBA is recognizing that even though you've contributed almost nothing to the Bulls this season, you can still jump high and throw down.  But that wasn't good enough for Tyrus.  He's only participating for the money:

"I'm just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day.  I'm just into the free money. That's it. I'll just do whatever when I get out there."

That's what Thomas had to say yesterday, so today John Paxson offered a rebuttal in the form of a $10,000 fine for the rookie.  I would imagine Tyrus is really interested in winning the money now that he's 10 dimes in the hole.

The dunk contest payout: Winner gets $35,000, the runner-up gets $22,500 and the third and fourth-place finishers get $16,125.  So even if he loses, he'll still get six g's of that "free money."  With ups like this though, I doubt he'll be coming in last place:

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #1 Comment from dpismyinitials 
  2/7/07 6:37 PM | Permalink

  Even though me and you do not agree that Tom Brady is better than Manning, I agree with you on Tyrus Thomas. He has not done anything for the Bulls. Honestly, he should have stayed in college. I'm still wondering how he was ranked high on draft day. The Bulls played themselves. And Tyrus Thomas isn't that great of a dunker. If players who do contribute a damn thing to the team get to participate in the Dunk Contest, then NBA should allow James White of the NBDL to participate. He would give more of a show than Tyrus. I want to see White dunk through his legs from the Free Throw Line.