SALT LAKE CITY — Jericho Sims was a late replacement into the Slam Dunk competition, but had already gotten his share of endorsements. His own teammates, including the reigning slam dunk champion, Obi Toppin, had pushed for his inclusion and Ja Morant, who might have been the most sought after competitor, had pushed for him to get in.

But the soft-spoken second-year center was quietly — he does most everything quietly — hoping for a chance. And when Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe opted to sit out, Sims got his chance.

“I am [excited] just to show what I can do, display my athleticism,” Sims said Saturday morning. “It’s going to be fun.”

For Sims, the showcase provided him an opportunity to move into the spotlight, but that is a place that he has rarely seemed comfortable. The quietest of the Knicks, he rarely says more than a few words in the locker room and even fewer on the court. That went against the advice Toppin gave him — to work the room at Vivant Arena and get the crowd behind him.

He had other obstacles to overcome — one very visible one. Sims is 6-10 and crowds (and judges) often fall in line to root for the underdog, the smaller player soaring to lofty heights. But Sims hoped to counter that with his unusual leaping ability — a 44.5 inch vertical jump measured at the NBA Draft Combine.

“I think for some people it looks cooler with shorter guys dunking,” Sims said. “But I think I can do some of the same things.”

Sims did have to sit through the usual media gauntlet and he revealed some news — that he is attempting to play for the Dominican Republic national team. And he also disclosed who he would want from his Knicks teammates to be by his side in a zombie apocalypse.

“Probably the group of bigs,” he said. “Mitch [Robinson], Isaiah [Hartenstein], Julius [Randle].”

Randle for three?

Randle was already a participant in Sunday’s All-Star Game when he got the invite as a replacement for the three-point competition. While his percentage has improved from last season, at 33.8% he entered the competition still with the lowest percentage of any of the eight players in the contest. But he was happy to join in.

“They asked me,” he said. “I didn't find out until after the Atlanta game. They asked me. I said why not? Have fun with it. I practiced once. I practiced yesterday one time, and we'll see how it goes.”

It went about the way you’d expect for a last-minute addition. Randle struggled to 13 points — eliminated in the first round with the second-lowest score.

Letter of the law

There has been controversy over the use of facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden — with Garden chairman James Dolan taking to a media tour earlier this month to defend the practice of using it to keep out fans who are employed by law firms in litigation against the Garden or the Knicks. There are also stories of fans being banned for criticizing Dolan on social media years ago.

“I have never heard that Madison Square Garden is using facial recognition technology to target members of the media,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “I would say in terms of their use of it currently directed at those who are litigating against them, as I’ve said previously, our only rules are that they comply with local law. From everything we understand right now, Madison Square Garden is complying with local law. At least, so far, we have not deemed it appropriate that we should be stepping into those situations.”

Load management

Silver addressed the problem that the league is facing with fans paying for expensive tickets and finding all too often that teams are sitting players for load management. But he did not have a solution.

“It is an ongoing conversation with the Players Association,” Silver said. “This isn’t a new issue. There’s nothing particularly happening this season that we haven’t seen happening over the last several seasons. I understand it from a fan standpoint that if you are particularly buying tickets to a particular game and that player isn’t playing. I don’t have a good answer for that other than this is a deep league with incredible competition.

“But the mindset of our teams and players these days, as your question suggests, it’s not just a player issue, it's that they should be optimizing performance for the playoffs. The difficulty is fans of that team, of those teams, want them to do that as well.”

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