Sports News: NBA All-Star Saturday Night Wrap-up

Tonight is All-Star Saturday Weekend, quite possibly the best day for NBA fans in the entire year. We will be covering the Shooting Stars competition, All-Star Skills Challenge, 3 Point Shout-Out, and Slam Dunk competition here on ZapNat. Stay tuned…..

Haier Shooting Stars Competition

The Haier Shooting Stars competition is one of my favorite parts of All Star Saturday. There are groups of three (one NBA legend, one current NBA player, and one WNBA player) who take 6 shots, 5 normal shots (3-pointers and closer), and then one half-court shot. In the first round, the two teams who make the 6 shots the fastest advance, and the team that does it faster in the second round wins.

This year Chicago and San Antonio (after David Robinson took 7 attempts to make the first shot), advanced to the second around. Chicago was made up of Candice DuPree, Chris Duhon, and B.J. Armstrong, while San Antonio was made up of 7-footers David Robinson and Tim Duncan, as well as WNBA player Becky Hammon. In the final round, Tim Duncan was the All-Star, making the three pointer on his first attempt, and then knocking down the half-court shot. San Antonio had a time of 35.8 seconds in the final round. Chicago got off to a good start, but it took them 15 tries to make the half-court shot, taking 53.3 seconds.

Winner: San Antonio

Playstation Skills Challenge

The Playstation Skills Challenge is the event for point guards. Participants must dribble through fake defenders, pass the ball through hoops, and make a jump shot and two lay-ups. This year’s participants were Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams.

Dwayne Wade won the event the past two years, but had a dismal time in the first round (53.9 seconds). Chis Paul (29.9 seconds) and Deron Williams (31.2 seconds) advanced to the second round, where Williams broke the all-time record, finishing with a time of 25.5 seconds to win the event.

Winner: Deron Williams

Foot Locker Three Point Shootout

The Three Point Shootout is pretty simple, there are five racks with five balls each at spots around the three point arc. At each rack, one of the balls is multi-colored and is known as the “money ball”, worth two points. Every other ball is worth one point. Participants have to shoot all 25 balls within one minute. The participants this year were Richard Hamilton, Daniel Gibson, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic, and Jason Kapono, last year’s winner. Nash had an awful first round, only getting nine points, while Kapono dominated, making 9 out of his last 10 shots for a final score of 20.

Kapono, Gibson, and Nowitzki have advanced to the second round.

Gibson just got 17 in the second round, which is a good score, but not great. Nowitzki is up next. He only has 7 points after three rows…..and 14 total. Kapono is next, he needs a score of 17+ to win. Kapono is on fire….he just hit 9 out of the last 10 and has 14 points after three rows. Kapono just won the event, with 25 total points, tying the event record.

Sprite Slam Dunk Competition

Finally, its time for this year’s main event, the Sprite Slam Dunk Competition. Its pretty simple, competitors throw down the best dunks they can think of, within the two minutes alloted to them. This year, fans vote for the winners in the final round. The participants are defending champion Gerald Green of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, and Jamario Moon of the Toronto Raptors. While this year had a good group, I really wish some of the stars like Lebron James would participate.

To vote, text “1 or 2″ to DUNKS, or visit NBA.com

Moon just threw down a great bounce, 360 one handed dunk for a total of 46. Rudy Gay threw down an average dunk, for a score of 37. Dwight Howard is next and is behind the backboard right now. He is trying a dunk off the back of the back board!! He just did it, thats a 50 for sure!!! Gerald Green is up next and is going to do something called “The Birthday Cake”. He just put a cupcake with a candle on it behind the rim. He just did it!!! He went up for the dunk and blew out the candle. Thats creativity. We have to get video of some of this up soon. He only got a 46 for of that.

Gay is up next and just got a teammate to throw it off the support for the backboard … and dunked it from behind the backboard. They gave him a 48 for that, but thats a bit high….the birthday cake was better. Moon is up and is looking to go from beyond the free throw line, with a bounce pass from Kapono. Oh, he didn’t get it from the free throw line, but he got it from just inside the paint. The judges have him a score of 44. Green is up and has a ladder again on the floor. He had his teammate sit on top of the ladder with the ball … and took the ball from his teammate’s hand to throw down a windmill dunk. He got a 45, abut got his head above the rim. Alright Howard is up now and I can’t wait to see what he does. He just put on a Superman cape, got a pass from behind the backboard, and got so high he dunked it without touching the rim. He threw the ball into the hoop. WOW!!! Thats another 50. Howard (100) and Green (91) advance.

Green just put down a through the legs dunk after an over the backboard pass from a teammate. It was OK, but not great. Howard is next. Oh my Goodness!! Howard just took the ball, bounced it high, took off and in mid-air bounced the ball against the backboard before dunking it. As Kenny Smith said this is one of the Top 5 Dunks of All Time and perhaps the best overall performance ever. Green needs to come up with something fresh or its over. Green just took off his shoes….and threw down the same dunk as last time. What was that?? It is over now. Howard could win with a lay-up. He just put a mini backboard on the real backboard and put the ball in the hoop of the small backboard. Oh, he just grabbed the ball, did a windmill, and slammed it, we are going to get some pictures and videos soon. Vote now for the next 5 minutes.

With 78% of the vote, Dwight Howard wins the 2008 Slam Dunk competition.

Here are a few videos:

NBA Saturday Night Recap