Sunday, February 15, 2004
ALL-STAR NOTES / Richardson finally stuffed in dunk fest
Los Angeles -- Jason Richardson's two-year reign as NBA dunk champion ended feebly -- ironic, because he was trying to avoid precisely that sort of ending.
The Warriors' guard only needed to successfully dunk on his final attempt Saturday night at Staples Center to put away Pacers rookie guard Fred Jones, whose own last chance seemingly had slipped through his fingers. But, Richardson said, "I didn't want to go out that way, I didn't want to win like that. I wanted to do something hard just like he had done something hard.''
What Richardson tried, though, a reverse 360 from straight on, was too hard. He missed, and Jones won his first slam-dunk title essentially by default. The one he missed in the final round and the one he made both scored higher than Richardson's attempts.
The one Jones missed would have been an instant classic: Friend Brandon Brooks twice threw passes from about 15 rows back in the southwest corner of the stands, from a good 50 feet away, but Jones mishandled both. It would have been hard to top the former champ's best dunk, a first-rounder in which he threw the ball off the backboard at rim level, caught it left-handed, passed it between his legs and dunked right-handed.
Watching the makes and misses at courtside was LeBron James, who turned down all pleas to participate and then saw the performances -- and another round of suspect judging, which basically put Jones in the finals ahead of the more spectacular Chris Andersen of Denver -- taint the contest to the point that rumblings about giving it a break similar to the 1997-99 hiatus arose again.
Peja falls short: The 3-point shootout ended anticlimactically as well.
Another two-time defending champ, the Kings' Peja Stojakovic, shooting last, clanked five straight midway through the final round and finished by missing the last 2-point "money'' ball to hand the title to the Nuggets' Voshon Lenard 18-16.
New frontier: The Rockets and Kings will open next year's preseason schedule with games in Shanghai and Beijing, becoming the first NBA teams to play in China since the Bullets, now known as the Wizards, visited in 1978.
Commissioner David Stern on Saturday called October's NBA China Games "the logical next step in the NBA's long-term relationship with Chinese basketball and Chinese fans.''
Yao Ming, the Rockets' center and new McDonald's pitchman, played professionally in Shanghai before entering the NBA in 2002; this will be his first game in his home country since then.
State of the league: In his annual All-Star Weekend news conference, Stern couldn't resist the chance to take a swipe at oft-fined nemesis Mark Cuban.
Stern disagreed with the Mavericks owner's complaint that NBA participation in international play was putting the players' health at risk. Pointing out that the influx of international stars would not have happened without the NBA's presence in the Olympics and other competitions, Stern said: "We don't think (it) is that big a deal ... and I don't think that Mark's view represents the majority here at all. ''
Briefly: The late Marvin Gaye was resurrected before the dunk contest, as was his legendary national anthem rendition of 1983, from the last time the All-Star Game was in Los Angeles. Daughter Nona Gaye performed a virtual duet with her father, her live and him on video. ... Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will join the TNT broadcast crew briefly during today's game. ... The halftime show featuring Beyonce Knowles will be carried on a seven-second delay to avoid potential Super Bowl-esque "wardrobe malfunctions.''
Los Angeles -- Jason Richardson's two-year reign as NBA dunk champion ended feebly -- ironic, because he was trying to avoid precisely that sort of ending.
The Warriors' guard only needed to successfully dunk on his final attempt Saturday night at Staples Center to put away Pacers rookie guard Fred Jones, whose own last chance seemingly had slipped through his fingers. But, Richardson said, "I didn't want to go out that way, I didn't want to win like that. I wanted to do something hard just like he had done something hard.''
What Richardson tried, though, a reverse 360 from straight on, was too hard. He missed, and Jones won his first slam-dunk title essentially by default. The one he missed in the final round and the one he made both scored higher than Richardson's attempts.
The one Jones missed would have been an instant classic: Friend Brandon Brooks twice threw passes from about 15 rows back in the southwest corner of the stands, from a good 50 feet away, but Jones mishandled both. It would have been hard to top the former champ's best dunk, a first-rounder in which he threw the ball off the backboard at rim level, caught it left-handed, passed it between his legs and dunked right-handed.
Watching the makes and misses at courtside was LeBron James, who turned down all pleas to participate and then saw the performances -- and another round of suspect judging, which basically put Jones in the finals ahead of the more spectacular Chris Andersen of Denver -- taint the contest to the point that rumblings about giving it a break similar to the 1997-99 hiatus arose again.
Peja falls short: The 3-point shootout ended anticlimactically as well.
Another two-time defending champ, the Kings' Peja Stojakovic, shooting last, clanked five straight midway through the final round and finished by missing the last 2-point "money'' ball to hand the title to the Nuggets' Voshon Lenard 18-16.
New frontier: The Rockets and Kings will open next year's preseason schedule with games in Shanghai and Beijing, becoming the first NBA teams to play in China since the Bullets, now known as the Wizards, visited in 1978.
Commissioner David Stern on Saturday called October's NBA China Games "the logical next step in the NBA's long-term relationship with Chinese basketball and Chinese fans.''
Yao Ming, the Rockets' center and new McDonald's pitchman, played professionally in Shanghai before entering the NBA in 2002; this will be his first game in his home country since then.
State of the league: In his annual All-Star Weekend news conference, Stern couldn't resist the chance to take a swipe at oft-fined nemesis Mark Cuban.
Stern disagreed with the Mavericks owner's complaint that NBA participation in international play was putting the players' health at risk. Pointing out that the influx of international stars would not have happened without the NBA's presence in the Olympics and other competitions, Stern said: "We don't think (it) is that big a deal ... and I don't think that Mark's view represents the majority here at all. ''
Briefly: The late Marvin Gaye was resurrected before the dunk contest, as was his legendary national anthem rendition of 1983, from the last time the All-Star Game was in Los Angeles. Daughter Nona Gaye performed a virtual duet with her father, her live and him on video. ... Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will join the TNT broadcast crew briefly during today's game. ... The halftime show featuring Beyonce Knowles will be carried on a seven-second delay to avoid potential Super Bowl-esque "wardrobe malfunctions.''
