All-Star Saturday Night Post-Contest Quotes

[Kori Ellis]

RadioShack Shooting Stars Quotes: Saturday, February 18, 2006

TONY PARKER, SAN ANTONIO
STEVE KERR, SAN ANTONIO
KENDRA WECKER, SAN ANTONIO


Q. First off, Steve, the obvious, what was that experience like for you, getting back on the international stage like that?

STEVE KERR: It's nerve‑wracking. Even though it's just kind of a for‑fun event, just something to enjoy.

We were talking about it beforehand. Kendra and I were both a little nervous, but that's the way it's supposed to be. The lights go on and you're involved in the compe ion and you feel the butterflies, that means you're ready. We had a lot of fun out there.

Q. Since there was no Pop out there, who did the pep talk?

TONY PARKER: Steve. Steve gave us the pep talk.

STEVE KERR: Pop gives us the same one every game anyways. Just replay, push play on the tape recorder. That fired us up.

Q. Did you know that three was going in when it left your hand?

TONY PARKER: The three or the halfcourt?

Q. The halfcourt.

TONY PARKER: Yeah, it felt good. Banged it, so it was good.

STEVE KERR: We couldn't make it in the practice. We ran through a practice, it took us over a minute, right, like over a minute. We missed probably 20 straight half‑courters. I'm thinking, this is trouble. We're not going to do very well, and he makes the first one.

Q. Of course she got you guys off to the good start.

TONY PARKER: Very good start.

STEVE KERR: Two out of two, Kendra was great, she got us rolling.

Q. Were you worried about him when he missed his first?

KENDRA WECKER: No, I wasn't worried. I knew it would take him two at the most. He didn't back off from the shot like everyone did. If he missed the first one, I knew he would get the second one in.

Q. Does Chip get any credit for that halfcourt shot?

TONY PARKER: A little bit. Every shot I make he gets credit.

Q. So he actually works on that shot with you guys?

TONY PARKER: I was missing everything in practice, and this morning in practice with the West team, it was my first made today.

Q. Steve, do you now feel like a legend?

STEVE KERR: Isn't that great? You play 15 years, average 16 points a game and they call you a legend when you show up at All‑Star Weekend. I won't correct it if they run it, I'll just go with it.

Q. That record is going to be pretty tough to beat, the 25?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, I think we missed two shots; I missed one and Tony missed one. So it's going to be tough to get much better.

TONY PARKER: That's the compe ion, the record.

Q. Just another big weekend for you, it just keeps getting better and better.

TONY PARKER: Better and better.

[Kori Ellis]

PlayStation Skills Challenge Quotes: Saturday, February 18, 2006

DWYANE WADE, MIAMI

Q. When you got selected for this, you sounded doubtful about your own chances and now you won, I mean, what happened?

DWYANE WADE: I don't know, man. I just went out there and I just competed, like everybody else. I kind of knew early on I was going to get the passes down. I was just worried about that top‑of‑the‑key jumpshot, what you see everybody had trouble on.

Just was competing, man. It was fun.

Q. Did you do any practicing for this event?

DWYANE WADE: No. Only practice was early on. We all came out just to get the court down and everything. I'm sorry, I didn't even watch it on the DVD they gave me. I decided to wing it, that's the kind of player I am, just come out and wing it anyway, so it worked again.

Q. When you made it the finals, did you think your time was going to hold up? Because I saw you looking up when Nash was there, were you concerned?

DWYANE WADE: You know, with 39 seconds, and seeing that Nash had the record with 25, not at all. But seeing that he had trouble with the jumpshot, it was shocking. I thought Nash was going to knock that down right away.

But it was good, man. And LeBron going 33 in the finals, I didn't know what to expect, but I hit that jumpshot and I kind of knew from there that I was going to be holding the trophy up.

Q. The first time when you were having trouble with the top‑of‑the‑key jumpshot, would it have been easier to picture some Pistons guarding you there?

DWYANE WADE: I don't know. (Laughing).

It would have been easier if I was listening to my teammates. Shaq was on the side, "Leave it up, leave it up." The second time, I decided I didn't want to hear his mouth no more, so I decided to leave it up and gave it a chance and made the shot.

Q. What about next year, defend your le, set the record?

DWYANE WADE: Yeah, man, I'm going to be in Vegas no matter what next year. No matter what happens, I'm in Vegas next year. Get the family and let's go. Vegas, here I come. (Laughter).

Q. How do you feel about that section who got PSP's just because of you?

DWYANE WADE: I feel great. They was saying, "We love Wade," and it's great anytime fans, you know, like you. Anytime they like you, I think section 416, they did a great job rooting me on. I'm glad I can give them a gift and give them a PlayStation.

[Kori Ellis]

Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout Quotes: Saturday, February 18, 2006

DIRK NOWITZKI

Q. First question, I don't know, you might be one of the first seven footers to win this event, do you feel like what you're doing out there, not only in this compe ion, but your game overall is revolutionizing the game? You're one of the big guys hitting the threes now.

DIRK NOWITZKI: You know, that's kind of my game. I'm a shooter first and then everything else comes second. I'm just glad to be here.
But I think when you look at the game now, a lot of big guys can step out and make that little 16 , 17 , 18 footer, you know, the game goes away from all of the big guys posting up and dribbling ten times. It's more moving now. All of the centers in the league can shoot a little bit, too, outside the paint. I think the game goes more into a face up kind of game, and obviously that's my game, too.

Q. Can you talk about the last shot in the first round, the one that barely got you into the second round.

DIRK NOWITZKI: Yeah, I looked at the clock and I only saw a couple of seconds and I still had three balls there. So all I did, I tried to hoist them up there as quick as I can, and I don't really know if I got the last one up in time or not. All I did was just try to get rid of it as quick as I can. It got me to the second round.

You know, in the first round I never really got comfortable out there, I missed a lot of shots and never really got my rhythm. Second round, started out better. One rack kind of killed me, didn't make a second shot.
It was weird sitting there on 18, I missed the last money ball to go to 20. You have to sit there and watch Ray Allen, one of the best shooters in our game, and just sit there and can't do anything about it. It was kind of weird but I'm glad I won.

Q. You didn't think the 18 was going to hold up?

DIRK NOWITZKI: I didn't think so. Especially Ray has been doing it, he won the contest before, so I knew he was going to have a good second round. You know, I wasn't 100 percent sure, but I'm glad it lasted.

Q. It seemed like Ray lost his legs at the end of the second round, how did your legs feel at the end of the second round?

DIRK NOWITZKI: Not bad. Like I said, I had one rack, that second to the last was kind of awful, in both rounds, I don't know really know. I don't really get into analyzing too much. I couldn't really get anything going from that rack.

Other than that, I felt great. I felt a lot better in the second round than I did in the first round. I was kind of stiff in the first round and couldn't really get anything going. I'm just glad I won.

Q. Does it mean anything to you to win this, or is it just kind of fun?

DIRK NOWITZKI: Well, obviously, once you go to the All Star Game, it's really about fun and showing, you know, the fans a great time and enjoying your time here. But we're all compe ors and once you start in the compe ion, obviously we all want to win.
So obviously this is great, to win it, and it's a great feeling and bring the trophy home to Dallas.

Q. Are you going to split the money with Jason (Terry) since that last shot in the first round was disputed?

DIRK NOWITZKI: You know, before we started, we said we would love to bring the trophy to Dallas, either one of us. He was rooting for me all the way and he was actually, when the guys were shooting in the final round and he was out, he was heckling them from behind. He was my fan out there and

I'm glad I won.

Great to be here.

[Kori Ellis]

Sprite Rising Stars Slam-Dunk Quotes: Saturday, February 18, 2006

NATE ROBINSON & SPUD WEBB


Q. Yesterday, Nate, you said you were hopeful that he (Spud Webb) would be watching today. You obviously knew he was going to be here, but how long had this been planned in advance and how nervous were you just to get into the finals so you could use it?

NATE ROBINSON: I was extremely nervous because I didn't know what exactly the other guys were going to do, you know. So just with the whole thing of making my dunks, it put me to the next round and the next round and I got to used it. And thank God I made every dunk, but he, Spud was willing to help me out.

Q. How long had you talked about it?

NATE ROBINSON: I knew for a while but I didn't want to tell nobody. My teammate Jamal (Crawford), we were on the plane and he was like, "I have the perfect idea, you should jump over Spud Webb." And I was like, "That is a good idea." It's been 20 years and he went over all the statistics and he was like, "We got to get in touch with him." After that, I just practiced my dunks for a week and a half. We came out here and practiced with Spud and everything went great.

Q. Spud, can you just talk about what it was like to be a part of this, and were you obviously hopeful he would make it to the finals?

SPUD WEBB: Yeah, you have a guy inside people doubt would jump anyway, we haven't seen much of Nate, so probably people didn't know the repertoire of dunks that he had. Now we know.

But I wasn't that nervous. Like he said, we practiced it, you know, and he cleared. He was so high, I was telling guys all last night how high he jumped, trying to keep it in that he was going to jump over me.

It's nice to see a guy that's humble and down to earth get to win an award like this because God gives us a gift to jump that we try to use to the best of our abilities and he does.

Q. How nervous were you, recipe for disaster, one more inch and it wouldn't have been good.

SPUD WEBB: Us guys we decided we have to believe in each other, you know that. So I seen him jump and that's all I needed, to see him jump, see how high he jumped, I talked to Herb Williams, his coach, about some of the things he does, and he was like, "Wait till you see."

Now we looking forward to a lot more.

Q. Nate, how did it feel for the first time ever that this Slam Dunk contest goes into tiebreak?

NATE ROBINSON: It's a great honor, a great privilege to be in my shoes right now. I just thank God, because, you know, without Him, nothing would be possible.

But like I say, thank Spud for helping me out, because I think that put me over the hump, just to make it to each round and then have a tiebreaker for the first time in the history, me and Andre, we can go down in history one day.

Q. The crowd afterwards seemed to be not quite as excited as they were after your dunk with Spud and after what Andre did, did you interpret that in any way? Do you think they wanted Andre to win?

SPUD WEBB: Let me answer that. They shouldn't get big guys to judge contests because they don't know good dunks. Tell Moses he should have won it when he dunked over me. It was good. It went to the playoff. It won. The crowd was into it, but this guy was incredible.

Q. Nate, with the struggles the Knicks are having right now, does it do anything for the franchise?

NATE ROBINSON: I mean, just the energy that I brought today, hopefully I can carry it to my team. I mean, God knows, you know, we need help. But besides that, our team, I mean, we're together.

One thing, you know, about our team, even though we're losing, we're losing together and as long as we stick together we're going to get through the storm regardless of how the season turns out. We have so many years ahead of the line.

But now after the All Star Break, I know guys are going to be even more hungry. It's like the season starts all over again. It's 0 0 and everybody has the same record, and we just got to turn it around in the second half of the season and hopefully get a playoff berth and we'll be all right.

Q. How much does this also mean to you, Spud, it being the 20th anniversary of your le?

SPUD WEBB: Oh, it's awesome. Like I said, he's such a nice and humble guy just to sit there and get to know. I met him last week, and watching him in college and some of the games this year. But to me, it means that a guy this size can jump and do those type of things. But what Nate really wants probably in his life is to win a championship and to play for years, and that's what you want to be known for as a good basketball player.

These individual achievements, you take pride in, and I didn't recognize how valuable it was until I retired from the NBA and people appreciate the things you do. He doesn't know the history he made today, but down the road he'll appreciate it with his kids.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

was AI too pissed to talk to the press? he looked pretty upset cuz of the way he felt it was being called

[Kori Ellis]

was AI too pissed to talk to the press? he looked pretty upset cuz of the way he felt it was being called

I think they were only talking to the champions in each of the contests. So that's why there's no quotes from him - he didn't win.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I think they were only talking to the champions in each of the contests. So that's why there's no quotes from him - he didn't win.

ahh good point

[Brutalis]

AI = Allen Iverson.

New age folks need to get it right .

[ALVAREZ6]

Yeah, call him Iggy.

[Kori Ellis]

AI = Allen Iverson.

New age folks need to get it right .

True. I always have to think twice when they call Igoudala, AI.

[ShoogarBear]

STEVE KERR: Isn't that great? You play 15 years, average 16 points a game and they call you a legend when you show up at All‑Star Weekend. I won't correct it if they run it, I'll just go with it.

No only that, but you can show up at All-Star Weekend and inflate your average an extra 10 points per game and they won't even correct that either. (j/k, I'm sure had actually said six, which is the correct number.)

Q. Are you going to split the money with Jason (Terry) since that last shot in the first round was disputed?

DIRK NOWITZKI: You know, before we started, we said we would love to bring the trophy to Dallas, either one of us.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

SPUD WEBB: Let me answer that. They shouldn't get big guys to judge contests because they don't know good dunks. Tell Moses he should have won it when he dunked over me. It was good. It went to the playoff. It won. The crowd was into it, but this guy was incredible.

Spud pretty much nailed it.

[Despot]

SPUD WEBB: Let me answer that. They shouldn't get big guys to judge contests because they don't know good dunks. Tell Moses he should have won it when he dunked over me. It was good. It went to the playoff. It won. The crowd was into it, but this guy was incredible.

Something is clicking in my head.....didn't they play togethor in Atlanta? 76'ers? Also think there was a problem between the two of them, any NBA historians remember anything about that?