Tiny Nate dethrones Smith By SEKOU SMITH The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/19/06 Houston — The legend of the little man lives on 20 years later, but not without a little controversy. New York Knicks powder keg Nate Robinson jumped over 1986 Hawks slam dunk champion Spud Webb on Saturday night at Toyota Center to unseat last year's winner, Hawks forward Josh Smith, in the marquee event of the NBA's All-Star Weekend. Smith was eliminated in the second round after receiving a surprisingly low score on his first attempt — a two-handed, double-pump dunk from the free throw line that the crowd appreciated more than the judges. "Josh Smith got robbed," one fan yelled from near courtside as the participants left the floor. "He took off from the free throw line and they robbed him." Facing elimination in the finals, the 5-foot-9 Robinson copied Smith's winning move from a year ago when he pulled out a Webb throwback jersey and asked for an assist on a dunk. Webb, sitting courtside, pulled the jersey over his shirt and bounced a ball in front of the basket that Robinson jammed home for his only perfect score of the night. He went on to beat Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala in a tiebreaker. "I thought Nate should have won it right there," Webb said of the pint-sized rookie. "There shouldn't have been any discrepancy. I thought Nate put on a show. There shouldn't have been any more dunks after that." But there were scores of them, from both Robinson and Iguodala, most of the misses. Robinson missed 15 times before nailing his final dunk "I feel terrible putting on a Hawks jersey to help a Knick win the dunk contest," Webb said. "You know I bleed Hawks red. But to pull for a guy that nice and humble, the way he carries himself, it was great to help him out in that way. "But how do you even dream of some of that stuff right there and then wake up and try them? He put on a show." Robinson said he got the idea of jumping over Webb from Knicks teammate Jamal Crawford. Even Webb had to admit it was a genius idea, particularly on the 20-year anniversary of the Webb's win. At 5-7, Webb remains the smallest player to win the dunk title. Robinson unveiled his surprise when it appeared that Iguodala was ready to claim the trophy. Once Webb hit the floor, though, the momentum was with the little guys. "I knew for a while but I didn't want to tell anybody," Robinson said of his plans to enlist Webb's services. "Jamal was like, 'I have the perfect idea . . . we have got to get in touch with him.' After that, I just practiced my dunks for a week and half. We came out here and practiced with Spud and everything went great." An hour of practice on the day of the competition wasn't enough to save Smith. He was in last at the end of the first round. He tried a length-of-the court, free throw line extended dunk but received just 41 of a possible points when he took off two steps inside of his mark. He was eliminated in Round 2, when he missed twice after catching tosses from Hawks point guard Royal Ivey. Smith caught the third one and dunked it but received just a 40. Smith didn't leave empty-handed. He smashed the competition Friday night to win the EA Sports NBA Live '06 video game title by beating Hornets rookie Chris Paul. "I knew there was no way I was leaving town without at least one title," Smith joked. "It was just good fun, man. This whole weekend, with or without the dunk contest, is a good time." It was a peculiar time, too. A 7-footer, Dallas All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, left the building as the winner of the 3-point shooting contest while a 5-9 guy won the dunk crown. "It's a great honor, a great privilege to be in my shoes," Robinson said. "I have to thank Spud for helping me out because I think that put me over the hump." 原文轉載 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0219slamdunk.html --

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