NBA All Star 2012 Dunk Contest -- Slam Net Force Meter

This year at the NBA All Star 2012 Dunk Contest the NBA has allowed some egg heads into the building -- and they've come up with a new quantitative measurement with which to better judge the dunk contest: a Slam Net Force Meter. Now, mind you, a meter that gauges how hard you dunk a ball is awesome. The Net in that title isn't a net force by the player, no; it's how much energy is measured as the ball goes through the net. So, in a way that Dwight Howard power layup from a few dunk contests ago would register a higher Slam force rating than something like what Steve Francis was throwing down back in 2000 -- even though Francis was actually dunking the ball.

I wish NBA.com allowed people to embed their videos -- but they don't, so you can watch the development of this meter here.

I do wonder if it makes any difference that this measure was calibrated with two guys on the MIT basketball team. Perhaps that actually helps Jeremy Evans because he's the lightest of all of the players in this competition? Of course, it remains to be seen just how much of an impact this new metric has on how the judges score the dunks though.