HOUSTON -- A big guy won the 3-point shootout. A little guy wonthe slam dunk contest.
The NBA's All-Star Saturday turned basketball inside-out as 7-foot Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas proved the best sniper from beyond thearc, and the New York Knicks' 5-foot-9 rookie Nate Robinson becamethe NBA's new jam king.
Robinson beat out 6-foot-6 Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia, 6-9Hakim Warrick of Memphis and 6-9 defending champ Josh Smith ofAtlanta, conjuring up memories of Spud Webb -- and then dunking overthe smallest slam champ the NBA as ever seen.
Miami's Dwyane Wade won the skills competition.
Robinson and Nowitzki are part of the changing NBA game, in whichgiants roam the perimeter while guards go hard to the hoop.
'When people look at me, they really don't understand where thehops are coming from,' said Robinson, who edged Iguodala in a dunk-off to earn a $35,000 first prize.
Big men don't need hops to dunk. But it helps if they have areliable jump shot. 'I think when you look at the game now, a lot ofbig guys can step out and make that 16-, 17-, 18-footer,' Nowitzkisaid.
Nowitzki drew a warm ovation from the Toyota Center crowd. ButRobinson, a first-round draft pick out of Washington, electrified thebuilding by taking a bounce pass from Webb, the 1986 champion, andleaping over the 5-7 former Atlanta Hawks guard to jam. The stuntearned a perfect 50-point score from the five-judge panel to force adunk-off against Iguodala, who had received two perfect scores.
Robinson gave an assist for the memorable dunk to Knicks teammateJamal Crawford. 'We were on the plane and he was like, 'Man, I havethe perfect idea,' ' Robinson said. 'I was like, 'What?' He said,'You should jump over Spud Webb. It's been 20 years (since Webb wonthe title).
'We had to get in touch with him, so we did and he was like,'Yeah, sure,' ' Robinson said.
Webb, the only other player shorter than 6 feet to win the popularcontest, said he enjoyed sharing the spotlight with Robinson. 'Hedoesn't know what he did tonight,' Webb said. 'He made history. Oneday he can tell his kids about this.'
In the dunk-off, a tiring Robinson needed 14 attempts to dunk. Hefinally caught his own pass off the backboard and jammed, earning 47points to edge Iguodala by one. Iguodala shook his head when thefinal score was posted but wasn't bitter.
'(Robinson) deserved to win,' Iguodala said. 'This is for thecrowd. If that's what they wanted, then that's what they got. I'm nottoo worried about it.'
Webb had a reply to those who thought Iguodala should have won.'Let me answer that for you: Big guys shouldn't judge the dunkcontest,' Webb said.
Each player dunked twice in the first round, with judges awardingcomposite scores between 30 and 50 points. The top two scoresadvanced to the finals.
Robinson's high-flying act highlighted All-Star Saturday.
In the 20th three-point shootout, Nowitzki outshot Seattle's RayAllen and Washington's Gilbert Arenas in the final round to win the$35,000 first prize. Nowitzki scored 18 points, topping Arenas' 16and Allen's 15. Players circle the three-point arc, pulling balls offracks and hitting as many shots as they can in 60 seconds.
'You know, that's kind of my game,' said Nowitzki, who is shooting41.7 percent from beyond the arc this season. 'I'm a shooter firstand then everything else comes second.'
Last year's champion, Quentin Richardson of the New York Knicks,was eliminated in the first round.
Wade edged Cleveland's LeBron James in the final round of thefourth skills challenge. In the skills challenge, four playersdribble, pass and shoot their way through a timed obstacle course.The players with the fastest times in the first round meet in thefinal round.
In the final round, Wade won the $35,000 first prize by navigatingthe course in 26.1 seconds, punctuating his final dunk by jabbing afinger toward the grandstand. His time was .3 seconds off the recordset last year by Phoenix guard Steve Nash. That easily beat James'time of 33.7 seconds.
Chris Paul, the rookie guard with New Orleans, finished third in42.6 seconds. Nash finished last in 52.8 seconds after missing allfive three-point shots.
In the fifth shooting stars competition, San Antonio's TonyParker, Steve Kerr and Kendra Wecker defeated teams representing LosAngeles, Houston and Phoenix. In the event, a present NBA player,WNBA player and a 'legend' from the same city shoot from six spots ofincreasing difficulty.
San Antonio hit all six shots in 25.1 seconds, with Parkerdraining a shot from just inside the half-court stripe to clinch the$45,000 first prize.
