For Rudy Gay, maybe the best idea to try in the NBA All-Star weekend slam dunk competition will come from a bent rim in a New York City playground, the dirt driveway of a farmhouse in France, an oceanfront court in Sydney where two teenagers lower a rim to 9 feet to dazzle the Memphis Grizzlies young star with a jam that had been unimagined until them.

The most tired All-Star Weekend event, the slam dunk contest, has come to the 'net searching for salvation, so yes, you have to love the way that Gay has empowered a world of people long on Air Jordan's imagination, but short on his hops.

Click on http://www.youtube.com/rudygay22slamdunk, and get the simple directions and upload an idea for a dunk that Gay can use Feb. 16 in New Orleans. He's going to pick the best idea and use it to try and beat Orlando's Dwight Howard, Toronto's Jamario Moon and defending champion Gerald Green of Minnesota.

Gay can leap forever, so the possibilities are endless.

"I just can't wait to see some of the ideas," Gay said by phone Wednesday.

Between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins and now, the competition has lost a lot of steam. The '80s and '90s found the sport's superstars willing to engage in the event, but eventually the Kobe Bryants and LeBron James and Dwyane Wades refused to be regulars. So, it's left to the kids, and maybe Gay's marketers at Octagon have something here that'll catch on.

Gay, the 6-foot-9 forward, has had a terrific sophomore season, scoring 19 points a night. He's one of those young stars with a chance to eventually turn a berth in Saturday night's dunk show into that of a Sunday night All-Star game participant. He dunked for the first time as a seventh-grader in Baltimore.

"We were blowing a team out and I was cherry picking, trying to get a fast break," Gay confessed. "I got one down, and then tried again, and got a flat tire with my shoes. I never got off the ground."

Through the years, those spry legs have inspired him to try some dunks that he wouldn't dare in a game. Even so, it's still hard to come up with something that's never been done.

"I'm counting on people to think of new ways, different ways, to do this," Gay said.

From where these ideas will come, Gay is waiting. He's going to pick one, do the dunk and the winner will be sitting courtside watching him leap for the rim, watching a brilliant idea take flight.