The Spectrum

Issue date: 2/23/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: AP Photo/Lucy Nicholson The New York Knicks rookie point guard Nate Robinson brought back memories of his passing partner Spud Webb with his Dunk contest victory.

A seven-footer winning the three point competition? A 5'9'' guard winning the dunk competition? The East beating the West in the All-Star game? It was a crazy weekend, and because of that it will go down in the record books as one of the best All-Star festivities ever.

This past weekend NBA fans were in their glory. They got to watch the young guns throw it down Friday night in the Rookie/Sophomore Challenge, followed by All-Star Saturday night in which four new champs were crowned, and then of course Sunday night's All-Star game. It was a weekend filled with surprises and controversy, but most of all, filled with fun.

It all started Friday night when the rookies took on the sophomores. As expected, the sophomores came out on top, but not without a fight.

Sophomore Andre Iguodola stole the show, scoring 30 points on 13-17 shooting and taking home MVP honors. Andre threw down nine dunks, almost as if he were warming up for the dunk competition. For the rookies, Charlie Villanueva scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Chris Paul had eight points, 11 assists and five steals.

Saturday night's events started out with the Shooting Stars Challenge, in which Tony Parker banked in a half-court shot on his first attempt to give team San Antonio (Tony Parker, Steve Kerr, Kendra Wecker) the trophy. Then came the Skills Challenge, where defending champ Steve Nash finished in dead last while Dwyane Wade finished the course in a ridiculous 26 seconds, topping Lebron James' time and earning top honors.

Now we go from ridiculous to "reDirkulous". Quentin Richardson won last year's Three Point Shootout but so far this year his play has been an act of jump shooting terrorism. While he has been playing decent defense and grabbing boards, his three point numbers are way down, shooting only 32 percent from behind the arc. He and Chauncey Billups tied for last with 12 buckets apiece.

In the end, the seven-footer from Germany, Dirk Nowitzki came out on top, draining 18 shots and becoming the first seven-footer to ever win the three point title.

Continued...

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