Celtics’ Brown Makes Dunking Dee-Lightful : All-Stars: At 6-1, he uses creativity to beat Seattle’s Kemp. Hodges wins shootout again.

John Havlicek, a great player from Celtic lore but never to be confused with Dr. J, gave Dee Brown some idea about laying on his back, popping up and having someone lob the ball for something of an alley-oop slam. Brown might as well have gotten dunking tips from the assistant equipment manager, which, in fact, did happen when Joe Qatado shared some secret plans Michael Jordan or Dominique Wilkins had never stumbled upon.

Maybe it is a telling statement that the dunk-off, though a commercial windfall in the All-Star prelims, has become so worn in the seven years since its origin that players have run out of new ideas. But Saturday night, a sense of uniqueness came within the old routine when a 6-foot-1 rookie from a team never known for sparkle defeated a 6-10 repeat competitor to win the $20,000 top prize.

Brown, the first Celtic entered in the event, purposely played off his size to win support from the crowds and five judges to beat Shawn Kemp of the Seattle SuperSonics. Neither could debate the plan’s success.

“I think it’s totally different, with the crowd and everything,” said Kemp, who finished fourth last year. “If you asked me to sit in the stands and judge and I see some guy go up, I’m going to see him develop the creativity in the air.”

Brown, who has a 41-inch vertical leap and with his speed is a key to the Celtics’ resurgence this season, showed his ingenuity on his first dunk of the final round. After placing one ball on the flat plate at the back of the rim, the Jacksonville University forward-turned-guard took another ball and headed for the basket.

In a move that took timing and height, he stuffed one through and then knocked in the other one. Kemp later contended Brown shouldn’t have gotten two chances after completing only half the move on the first attempt, but rightly stated it didn’t make a difference either way because contestants could throw out one of their three moves in the finals.

“I don’t think you have to be impressed with his power,” Kemp said. “You have to be impressed with his creativity. The power came from when he was hanging on the rim, but the creativity was unbelievable.”

Coming up with a unique idea might have been Brown’s toughest task.

“It’s very hard,” he said. “Some guy jump better off one foot, some guys just have a great vertical leap no matter what. But you can’t win a dunk contest by yourself. You have to get ideas from other people.

“I’m not a spectacular dunker during games. A dunking contest is more my specialty. Being that I’m small, I can definitely woo the crowd and the judges in my favor because of my size.”

Kemp, a second-year player and at age 21 still the youngest player in the league, won $10,000.

The Chicago Bulls’ Craig Hodges, who hasn’t taken enough three-point shots this season to qualify among the league leaders, won the long-distance shootout for the second consecutive year, beating Terry Porter of the Portland Trail Blazers in the final round to earn the $20,000 prize.

Invited because he is the defending champion, the Cal State Long Beach product at one point made 19 consecutive shots in the semifinals, eight better than anyone ever in this six-year-old competition.

“This is as close as I’ve been to repeating in anything in basketball,” Hodges said. “I haven’t been blessed to be on a team in that position in the NBA, so this is a great feeling.”

David Thompson, a former star at North Carolina State who now works in the front office for the host Charlotte Hornets, scored 12 points to lead the East past the West, 41-34, in the Legends game.

George Gervin had 11 for the West, and former Laker Jamaal Wilkes added four. The game was played in two 12-minute halves.