Utah's Evans wins Slam Dunk contest (VIDEO)

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz won the 2012 Slam Dunk Contestduring the NBA All-Star Weekend Saturday night in Orlando (Sunday morning in Manila).


Evans won after garnering 29.% of the 3-million votes from basketball fans worldwide. He edged Houston’s Chase Budinger, Minnesota’s Derrick Williams and Indiana’s Paul George.

The Jazz guard was a late entry into the contest, replacing New York's Iman Shumpert who suffered an injury prior to the All-Star Weekend.

"I felt like I was still dreaming. Just to come out and compete, it was fun," Evans said after his victory.

Evans' first dunk – a reverse jam with a camera on his head – was not well-received, and he admitted that it was "horrible."

But his second dunk stole the show, as he dunked two balls while jumping over teammate Gordon Hayward.

"I think Gordon was huge, I couldn’t have done it without him," Evans said. "He came and just to go out there and have a teammate is special. To go out there by yourself is pretty tough."



Evans capped off his night with a tribute dunk to Jazz legend Karl Malone.

Rockets forward Budinger opened the show with a dunk over rapper P. Diddy, and followed it up with a windmill dunk. His final dunk was a reverse jam while blindfolded.

Indiana's George, meanwhile, put together the most theatrical dunk of the night as he had the lights inside the AmWay Arena put out before completing his slam. He then dunked over two teammates – Roy Hibbert and Dahntay Jones – before finishing his night with a Larry Bird tribute dunk.

Williams, for his part, dunked over a motorcycle for his first slam, and then teamed up with Ricky Rubio for his second dunk: an 360 alley-oop off the side of the backboard. He had trouble with his last dunk, however, an off-the-backboard between-the-legs slam.

Meanwhile, Minnesota's Kevin Love edged Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant to win the 3-Point Shootout.

Love had to beat Miami's Mario Chalmers in a shoot-out after the first round to enter the final round. He had 16 points in the final round to tie Durant, and then out-dueled the two-time league leading scorer, 17-14, in the tie-break round.

Defending champion James Jones topped the opening round with 22 points but had only 12 points in the final round.

Meanwhile, San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker won the Skills Challenge, edging defending champion Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets and Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics.

He finished the obstacle course in 32.8 seconds in the finals, while Rondo needed 34.6 and Williams clocked in at 41.4 seconds.

Team New York, composed of Knicks legend Allan Houston, NY Liberty’s Cappie Pondexter, and Knicks guard Landry Fields won the Shooting Stars competition, edging Team Houston (Kenny Smith, Sophia Young and Chandler Parsons).