2008 NBA All-Star Saturday Night Grades

The second day of the All-Star festivities featured the Haier Shooting Stars, the Playstation Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest, and had a “Super” ending in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest.

There was plenty of drama, upsets, record setting scores, and everything you needed in the All-Star weekend.

Here are the grades for 2008 All-Star Saturday Night:

Haier Shooting Stars

The reuniting of the “Twin Towers” David Robinson and Tim Duncan, who teamed up with San Antonio Silver Stars shooter Becky Hammon, reminded everyone once again why the road to the championship still goes through the San Antonio Spurs.

San Antonio won the competition in 2006, but needed their 7-footers to make long jumpers, 3-pointers, and half-court shots. Who would’ve thought that Duncan would drain his 3-point attempts and his half-court attempt, while Robinson, who missed his first seven 5-foot bank shots, redeemed himself by making his half-court attempt?

Give credit to San Antonio for making shots when they needed to. Their final round time of 35.8 seconds was good enough to beat out Phoenix, Detroit, and Chicago. Chicago could have won the crown had they not missed 12 consecutive half-court attempts, which summed up the sports-year Chicago is having.

Grade: A-

Playstation Skills Challenge

Deron Williams of the Jazz showed off his skills that make him one of the NBA’s elite point guards. Williams blazed through the final course at a blistering 25.5 seconds, which was only .1 seconds off Steve Nash’s record time, beating Chris Paul’s final round time of 31.2 seconds.

Jason Kidd may have made it to the final round, but like the regular season, Kidd’s shooting woes eliminated him in the first round with a time of 39.9 seconds.

I knew Kidd would lose because of his poor shooting abilities.

Dwyane “The Flash” Wade looked nothing like the two-time reigning champion by losing his dribble, missing his jumpers, and even missing his two layups—receiving an abysmal 53.9 seconds. I don’t blame Sony inviting Wade, but he should’ve prepared for the Challenge.

Overall, it was a good competition, and for one day, Deron Williams is the NBA’s best point guard.

Grade: B+

Foot Locker Three-Point Contest

For the second consecutive year, Jason Kapono proved again Damon Jones is not “the best shooter in the world,” and won his second Three-Point Contest crown.

Kapono hit 20-25 attempts, tying an all-time record by getting 25 of the possible 30 points. He easily crushed Dirk Nowitzki (14 points) and Daniel Gibson (17 points) in the final round by hitting all five money balls, and finished a flurry by hitting 8 of his last 9 shots.

While in the end there was really no doubt who the winner would be, you would’ve expected sharpshooters Peja Stojakovic (15 points), Richard Hamilton (14 points), and Steve Nash (9 points) to put up more of a fight.

And Damon Jones—instead of busting out the purple suit, sporting the Mohawk, and declaring who is the world’s best shooter—keep watching J.J. Redick’s Basketball Shooting DVD.

Grade: B

Sprite Slam Dunk Contest

After several years of the NBA trying to bring some excitement back into the Dunk Contest, Dwight Howard finally delivered a stellar show.

Howard, Gerald Green, Jamario Moon, and Rudy Gay provided the impressive creativity that the contest desperately needed.

The first round contained several great dunks, such as Green’s blowing-out-the-candle dunk, Moon’s mid-air catch 360 dunk, and Gay’s version of Andre Iguodala’s behind the backboard dunk.

But it was Howard that set the tone for the night, and unfortunately for the other contestants, “Superman” flew into New Orleans with an array of creative dunks. If you saw the Dunk Contest, then I don’t need to describe each unbelievable dunk.

Howard’s length and strength enabled him to perform dunks (two of them were featured on YouTube) that are probably impossible to imitate.

Not only where his dunks impressive, but his humor and personality shined when he brought out the Superman costume, in which he proceeded to throw down a monstrous dunk in Superman fashion.

If there things that could be changed for 2009, it would be to ask contestants to not post previews of dunks on YouTube that they cannot or will not do (a.k.a Jamario Moon and Rudy Gay), or not do very similar dunks in the finals (Green).

Other than that, THE DUNK CONTEST IS BACK!

Grade: A

Overall Grade for All-Star Saturday Night: A-

While some things were predictable and some contestants did not live up to their standards, All-Star Saturday was still very entertaining with many surprises and much excitement. Obviously the Dunk Contest capped off the night and electrified the world, and the night was exciting in almost every aspect.

Let’s hope we can expect the same excitement for 2009.