I first blogged about the Bucks campaign to get Joe Alexander into the 2009 Sprite NBA Slam Dunk Contest on Dec. 30. Since then, the Bucks and Alexander, thanks to the creative team at Purple Onion, a Milwaukee-based film production company, have promoted Alexander's cause with an online and viral video campaign.
Portland's Rudy Fernández and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder are the other first-year NBA players in the running. And, while all three have filmed videos, Alexander's are all posted on a separate Web site and he acts and tries his hand at comedy.
The skits are short and simple, but creative enough to hopefully give Joe a shot at the NBA dunk title. Other videos, posted on NBA.com, show Alexander rapping and touching his nose to the rim. All in all, the videos were creative enough to gain mention in Sunday's NYT.com.
As I noted in December, Alexander hasn't seen a lot of playing time this year, but the guy has huge jumping ability and a great personality. He's been competing and winning dunk contests his whole career so he deserves a shot on the NBA dunk contest stage with the reigning champ Dwight Howard.
Voting ends on Wednesday, so show some Milwaukee love by voting for Joe today. Just click here.
The winner will be announced Saturday.
In other news, Slam Online reports that Alexander's name has been mentioned in a possible trade.
"The latest rumor to surface is the Bucks possibly trading backup point guard Ramon Sessions and forward Joe Alexander, who was the eighth overall selection in last June's NBA draft, to the Memphis Grizzlies. In return, the Bucks would obtain point guard Michael Conley Jr., who was the No. 4 overall selection in the 2007 draft. The Bucks would also likely receive a future draft choice."
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
