2009 All-Star Saturday: Skills, 3's & Dunks

Saturday night the stars came out in Phoenix to watch several hot competitions which served as a precursor to the 2009 NBA All-Star Game.

The always anticipated Dunk contest featured a showdown between last year's winner, big man Dwight Howard, and the smaller winner from several years ago, Nate Robinson from the New York Knicks. The battle took on a whole new level as the two finalists donned costumes. Dwight Howard had a second basketball hoop brought in via forklift, then ran to a phone booth in the crowd where he donned his familiar Superman cape. Howard then proceeded to dunk on a hoop that had been raised a lofty 12 feet, displaying his true athletic ability. Howard outdid himself when he did another dunk from the sidelines after tossing the ball off the side of the hoop, catching it, cocking it back and jamming it on the side.

Nate Robinson decided to play arch-enemy to Superman, Lex Luthor, when he emerged from the locker room dressed in the special green Knicks uniform and kicks, resembling Kryptonite. From there, Robinson launched into several impressive dunks. First up was a double-handed reverse. But the dunk that was the icing on the "cape" so to speak, was Robinson calling in his opponent, D-Howard, to stand facing the hoop. Robinson then charged full speed ahead and launched himself up and over Superman. It was a comic book finish to a zany dunk contest, which gave way to Robinson winning his 2nd dunk contest title. Robinson was informed as were fans watching that Lebron James has thrown his name into the contestants for 2010...Just when you thought there's nothing left to do, King Lebron will be ready to innovate in 2010!

Let's not forget about the previous competitions of the night, even though they usually pale in comparison to the dunks. In the skills contest it was Chicago's rookie phenom, Derrick Rose, who took home the victory. Rose even capped off his layup with a sweet dunk of his own...so why no dunk contest Rose? The three point shootout saw a relatively unknown winner in Dacquan Cook of the Miami Heat. He beat out Rashard Lewis in the finals. Detroit's team built of a WNBA star, NBA legend and NBA star took home the title in the team shootout competition.

With the festivities wrapped up on Saturday Night in Phoenix, the stage is set for the 2009 All-Star Game where Lebron, Kobe and the rest of the best will suit up to dazzle and astound the crowd!