WASHINGTON — Karl Malone had a hunch and went with it.
The Jazz All-Star had a feeling rookie teammate DeShawn Stevenson would hold his own in the NBA All-Star Saturday dunk contest. Besides, Malone decided, Stevenson deserved to go. So he made a call to the league office in New York, pulled a few strings and got the kid in.
"He's done everything (Jazz coach) Jerry Sloan has asked of him," Malone said before the contest. "It's kind of a little reward for him."
Stevenson didn't win, but left well-compensated for his performance nonetheless. He won $15,000 for finishing second to winner Desmond Mason of the Seattle SuperSonics, who pocketed $25,000 himself.
"That's alright," Stevenson said when it was done. "Fifteen Gs aren't bad."
Stevenson, just like the other five NBA youngsters in the dunking field, started off slow. Four of the first seven attempts, in fact, were misses, including an under-handed, off-the-backboard try from the 19-year-old Jazz shooting guard.
Stevenson teamed with Bryon Russell — participants were allowed to utilize partners — for a third-try dunk that lifted him into the finals. Russell tossed a backboard pass to Stevenson, who went into a lengthy for-the-cameras shimmy after complementing the pass with a power jam — a dunk worth 49 out of a possible 50 points.
In the finals, however, Russell and Stevenson had their woes.
He outscored Charlotte's Baron Davis, who came up short on a blind-folded attempt — one of the disappointing contest's more innovative attempts, along with Corey Maggette's front-flip first dunk and Davis' own slam in which he leaped over teammate David Wesley while Wesley was holding a videocamera.
But Stevenson was beat by Mason, who used a left-handed jam along with a two-handed windmill number in the finals. Stevenson scored just 38 on his first finals dunk after a two-handed dunk over Russell, who instead of standing in place after his backboard pass wound up running out of the way.
"He was supposed to stay there," Stevenson said, "but he got scared and kept on running. But it's all right. He's my teammate. He's been sticking with me this whole season, so I'm glad to have someone like that behind me."
Stevenson was also glad that Malone made the call as he did, and that Russell dialed the phone for him as well.
"It means a lot to me," said Stevenson, last year's McDonald's All-American High School Game dunk champ. "It means they have a lot of confidence in me."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com