NBA basketball is a big man's game. Don't tell that to 5-foot-9 Nate Robinson. The New York Knicks' rookie won the NBA All-Star slam dunk competition Saturday night, beating out 6-foot-6 Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia, 6-9 Hakim Warrick of Memphis and 6-9 defending champ Josh Smith of Atlanta.

Tonight, watch as Belbin & Agosto skate closer to ice dancing gold.

Robinson, who earned a $35,000 first prize, electrified the Toyota Center by taking a bounce pass from Spud Webb, the 1986 champion, and leaping over the 5-7 Webb to jam. The stunt earned a perfect 50-point score to force a dunk-off against Iguodala, who had received two perfect scores.

In the dunk-off, Robinson jammed on the 14th try, catching his own pass off the backboard. He earned 47 points, edging Iguodala by a point.

"This is something I dream about," Robinson said before the contest. "Hopefully, kids go out there and one day want to be like me. Hopefully I can just go out there and just send a message to some of these kids that, even though you're small, you can mean so much more to yourself and your friends and family and to people all across the world."

Each player dunked twice in the first round, with a panel of five judges awarding composite scores between 30 and 50 points. The top two scores advanced to the finals.

The dunk contest highlighted All-Star Saturday, which included the three-point shootout, the skills challenge and the shooting stars.

In the 20th three-point shootout, Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki, a 7-footer, outshot Seattle's Ray Allen and Washington's Gilbert Arenas in the final round to win the $35,000 first prize. Nowitzki scored 18 points, topping Arenas' 16 and Allen's 15. Players circle the three-point arc, pulling balls off racks and hitting as many shots as they can in 60 seconds.

"Obviously, it's a little different shooting off the rack," said Nowitzki, who is shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc this season. "Game shots are totally different."

Last year's champion, Quentin Richardson of the New York Knicks, was eliminated in the first round.

Miami guard Dwyane Wade edged Cleveland's LeBron James in the final round of the fourth skills challenge. In the skills challenge, four players dribble, pass and shoot their way through a timed obstacle course. The players with the fastest times in the first round meet in the final round.

In the final round, Wade won the $35,000 first prize by navigating the course in 26.1 seconds, punctuating his final dunk by jabbing a finger toward the grandstand. His time was .3 seconds off the record set last year by Phoenix guard Steve Nash. That easily beat James' time of 33.7 seconds.

Chris Paul, the rookie guard with New Orleans/Oklahoma City, finished third in 42.6 seconds. Nash finished last in 52.8 seconds after missing all five three-point shots.

In the fifth shooting stars competition, San Antonio's Tony Parker, Steve Kerr and Kendra Wecker defeated teams representing Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix. In the event, a present NBA player, WNBA player and a "legend" from the same city shoot from six spots of increasing difficulty.

San Antonio hit all six shots in 25.1 seconds, with Parker draining a shot from just inside the half-court stripe to clinch the $45,000 first prize.

(AP via CRI February 19, 2006)