2009 NBA Jam Tournament

The 2009 NBA Jam Tournament was held at Josh Ellington Manor on January 25th, 2009. It featured 12 of the world's greatest players, including the undisputed #1 player, Grant Siefker. The tournament featured double-elimination play, and awarded trophies to the top three finishers. Grant defended his title with a victory over Greg Beckman in the finals.

Revival
Two years had passed since the 2007 NBA Jam Tournament, and all those involved were yearning for more action. It was decided that a new tradition be created. The Tournament would be an annual tradition, taking place on the eve of the Royal Rumble. On January 25th, 2009, the top twelve NBA Jam players in the world gathered at Josh Ellington Manor to determine a new champion.

Competitors
The following is a list of the twelve people who competed in the second NBA Jam Tournament:


 * Greg Beckman
 * Sam Beckman
 * Andy Brickner
 * Adam Bowers
 * Keith Carroll
 * Andrew Gehring
 * Matt Hughes
 * Eric Reed
 * Matt Rosebrock
 * Zach Schroeder
 * Grant Siefker
 * Devin Weise

Preliminaries
Before the tournament began, most of the competitors played warm-up matches. Andy Brickner, who did not compete in the 2007 Tournament, surprised everyone by beating the two favorites, Grant and Greg.

The seeding draw for the first round was done randomly. This produced another early-round matchup between Grant and Greg. This match would prove to have a great influence on the outcome of the tournament.

First Round
In the first match, Adam Bowers defeated Matt Rosebrock. The second match was, what many have called, the most intense game of NBA Jam ever played. Greg was able to force overtime, but with the help of Larry Johnson, Grant eked out a win. In the next match, Eric Reed beat Devin Weise in a double-overtime thriller that was surprisingly low-scoring. To finish out the first round, Zach Schroeder defeated Keith Carroll.

Second Round
The second round began with Matt Hughes getting his first ever tournament victory over Bowers. In the next match, Grant destroyed Sam Beckman by 44 points. Andy beat Eric in the third game. The fourth match saw Andrew Gehring beat Zach in a controversial finish. The game doesn't call goaltending if it is a game-ending shot, so his final shot didn't have a chance to go in.

Semifinals and Finals
The first semifinal pitted Matt Hughes against Grant. Matt was able to hang around for a while, but Grant eventually pulled away for a convincing win. The second semifinal was a match between Andy and Andrew. Andrew would end up winning a close game, stopping the dark horse Andy in his tracks.

In the finals, defending champion Grant faced the newcomer Andrew. Despite being the heavy favorite, Grant trailed Andrew going into halftime. However, he was able pull together in the second half and win a close game.

Loser's Bracket
The loser's bracket seeding was done in a non-traditional style to avoid rematches. Players were kept on the same side of the bracket, but were otherwise switched.

Frustrated from his first-round loss, Greg tore through the loser's bracket, winning every game by an astonishing margin. Matt Rosebrock beat an impaired Sam, but was crushed by Greg, who scored a record 89 points.

Devin was able to force overtime against Zach, who was once again ripped off by the same goaltending glitch as before. However, this time he was able to win the match. Keith beat Eric, then lost to Zach.

Greg dominated Andy, who had beaten him in a preliminary match. After beating Matt, Zach was competitive with Greg through the first half, but Greg was able to catch fire and win the game.

Finals
As the winner of the loser's bracket, Greg faced Andrew, the loser of the winner's bracket. Because both of them have one loss, the loser would be eliminated. Greg was able to beat Andrew, forcing the rematch of the century. Because this is a double-elimination tournament, Greg would have to beat Grant twice to win.

Right away, Greg jumped out to an 11-0 lead, and was up 17-4 after the first quarter. Going into the fourth quarter, Greg had an 11 point lead. However, Larry Johnson began raining 3's, and Grant got to within 2. He was on fire, meaning that he could goaltend, but when he tried to do so, his teammate Muggsy Bogues jumped up as well, grabbed the ball, and was called for goaltending. This ended Grant's run, and Greg won the first game by 2 points.

Both Grant and Greg had one loss at that point, so the next match was winner-take-all. The first half of the championship match was incredibly close. Normally, both Grant and Greg wait to unleash their aces (Larry Johnson and David Robinson, respectively) until the fourth quarter. However, Alonzo Mourning was hurt badly, so Grant chose to bring him out in the third quarter. In the third quarter, Grant grabbed a seven point lead, but Greg destroyed Larry Johnson injury-wise. In the fourth quarter, Grant was able to hold on with a hurt LJ against a fresh Admiral to win his second consecutive NBA Jam championship.

Podium
The top four finishers of the 2009 NBA Jam Tournament are as follows:


 * 1) Grant Siefker - second consecutive title
 * 2) Greg Beckman - second consecutive second place finish
 * 3) Andrew Gehring - first tournament appearance
 * 4) Zach Schroeder - finishes one spot out of the trophies again

In 2009, Devin Weise succeeded Eric Reed as the commissioner of the NBA Jam League, giving him the responsibility of handing out trophies and shaking hands.

Title Belt
With this tournament being an NBA Jam League sanctioned event, the NBA Jam Title Belt was also at stake. Andy briefly held the belt with his victory over Grant in their preliminary match. Andrew won it from him in the semifinals, then Grant took it in the finals. Greg held the belt after beating Grant, but once again, Grant finished with the belt after winning the championship match, retaining his title of World NBA Jam Champion.