While Faried has some tough competition in the dunk contest, he said it’s the furthest thing from his mind.

“Honestly, it’s an honor, but I haven’t even thought of it once yet,” Faried said. “I’m looking forward to the Dunk contest and the Rising Stars Challenge, but more than that, I’m looking forward to winning games on this roadtrip.”

Faried said that he has done the rumored bowling ball dunk before, but isn’t sure if he’ll do it for the contest.

“Honestly, I haven’t thought much about the bowling ball dunk,” Faried said with a smile. “I’ve done it before, but I don’t know if I want to do it in the contest. The last thing me or my team wants is for me to get injured in a dunk contest.”

The Manimal leads all of the competitors in dunks and his teammates are impressed by what they’ve seen.

“He gets up high. He dunks it hard. That always makes it good for an interesting dunk. It’s going to be fun,” Nuggets guard Ty Lawson said. “It’s going to be nice to have a rooting interest.”

While Lawson will be rooting for Faried, can we count on any of his teammates to assist him?

“I haven’t talked to any of the guys yet,” Faried said. “I’m going to worry about that stuff once I get to Houston.”

While many of the competitors practice dunks before arriving to the All-Star scene, Faried knows there are more pressing issues.

“I haven’t practiced a thing yet for the contest,” Faried said. “I’m very excited and humbled to be asked to participate. For me though, the more important thing is to focus on these games one at a time. I’ll worry about the rest of it as it comes along.”