LAS VEGAS — Boston's Gerald Green capped All-Star Saturday with an acrobatic leap over a table to win the dunk contest.
Green, the Celtics' 21-year-old swingman, performed his two most memorable dunks in the first round before that lengthy final leap over a 3-foot table bearing the All-Star game logo for a windmill jam and perfect 50 score to cap an event that gets tougher to revolutionize every year.
"I've always dreamed about being in the dunk contest, (but) I never dreamed about actually winning," said Green, who was in high school in Texas two years ago. "Just coming out here to Las Vegas and winning it for my fans in Houston, my fans in Boston, is tremendous."
Green first made an electrifying two-handed slam on an alley-oop pass off the side of the backboard from teammate Paul Pierce in the first round. Green then jumped over fellow finalist Nate Robinson while wearing the No. 7 Celtics jersey of 1991 dunk champion Dee Brown — and shielding his eyes in the crook of his elbow in an homage to Brown's memorable no-look dunk.
Green easily won over the five-man judges' panel of Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter — particularly when Robinson, the diminutive 2006 champion, missed nine straight times on his final dunk before finally landing a one-handed spin slam.
"I knew they were going to be tough, because those guys had the creativity and the dunking style," Green said. "I tried to come out with something they never did before, (and) hopefully they could give me a score."
Green and Robinson eliminated Orlando's Dwight Howard and Chicago's Tyrus Thomas in the first round, even though the 6-foot-11 Howard came up with the most original move.
While catching a high bounce pass from teammate Jameer Nelson for a right-handed slam, Howard reached nearly to the top of the backboard to slap a sticker bearing his face onto the glass — 12 feet, 6 inches off the ground, according to Nelson.
Green initially planned to jump over a life-size cardboard cutout of the 5-foot-9 Robinson before the New York guard volunteered to stand in for his stand-in.
SHOOTING STARS: All-Star Saturday got off to an appropriately silly start when Scottie Pippen's three-person Chicago team was disqualified from the Shooting Stars competition, handing victory to Detroit's team.
Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash and Bill Laimbeer won the gimmicky shooting game featuring three-person teams composed of an NBA player, a WNBA player and a famed former NBA player. The teams must combine to make six shots from six spots around the court in the shortest amount of time.
Pippen, the 41-year-old former star who announced plans for a comeback Friday, thought he had shot Chicago to victory when he banked in a half-court shot to finish 3 seconds quicker than the Detroit team's time. But after officials reviewed the tape, they realized Ben Gordon and the Chicago Sky's Candice Dupree had made their shots out of order moments earlier.
There was trouble even before the final round. The Thomas and Mack Center clock refused to advance past 1 minute during the 2-minute competition, forcing Laimbeer to complain loudly. Officials eventually had to time the event manually.