Column as I see 'em

Author: JEFF PATTERSON

Although the 54th NBA All-Star game was played in Denver's Pepsi Center, the Slam Dunk contest, arguably one of the most exciting events during the Weekend, was sponsored by Sprite, a division of Coca-Cola. During every commercial break the same ad would run, where Thirst, a cartoon character, returned a beat-up car to two guys, who thought it had been stolen. The outside of the car remained dirty, but the inside was transformed to contain dining hall style soda dispensers and a full fridge. According to Thirst's receipts, the interior improvements cost $37,000. Hypothetically, with the substantial earnings the Phoenix Suns made from wins in the Shooting Stars competition, the Skills Challenge, the Three-Point Shootout and a second-place finish in the Slam Dunk contest, they could buy a new company car.

In the Shooting Stars competition, a WNBA player, an NBA player and a retired legend worked together, trying to make shots from different locations, including one from half court, in the shortest amount of time. Thunder Dan Majerle sunk the 47-foot shot immediately electrifying the crowd. Next up, Steve Nash showed why he is one of the most fundamental point guards in the league by winning the Skills Challenge. In the finals of the Three-Point Shootout, Quentin Richardson's first attempt was an air-ball, but he came back like a squash ball when the pressure was on. When he couldn't miss, he didn't miss. 'Q' made his last nine shots to go one ahead of the leader, Kyle Korver and when the defending champ, Voshon Lenard, failed to match Richardson's score, Phoenix had won the first three competitions and was looking for a sweep.

Amaré Stoudemire used Suns teammate Steve Nash to help him perform a dunk that easily could have received a higher score than the perfect 50 it got. Here, Nash received a bullet pass off backboard and in one motion, headed an alley-oop lob to Stoudemire. While in mid-air Stoudemire spun 180 degrees before he slammed the ball with his right hand. However, the judges were more impressed with Josh Smith, the 19-year-old rookie forward on the Hawks. Smith's most memorable dunk involved catching a pass from Kenyon Martin, who was sitting on a chair in the middle of the paint and flying over him so he could flush the ball with his left hand. K-Mart didn't flinch. But he didn't need to because Smith's right foot was more than five feet in the air.

Even with musical performances by Destiny's Child and LeAnn Rimes there were plenty of unsung heroes. Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison and Zydrunas Ilgauskas were on the floor during a 17-0 run that put the East up by seven. Without this spurt, the West would have easily won its fourth All-Star game in a row.