Victory Is Slam Dunk for Carter

They saved it, and him, for last, and they were wise.

The much-anticipated Vince Carter Slam Dunking Spectacular took over the all-star weekend festivities on Saturday night, electrifying an event that was discontinued for years because of a lack of creativity.

Not anymore.

The Toronto Raptor forward won the slam-dunk contest, racking three perfect 50 scores in five attempts--and getting a 48 and a 49 on his two others--but that wasn’t news to those who packed The Arena in Oakland.

What everybody, from Shaquille O’Neal to David Stern to Tyra Banks to probably most of his dunking competitors, wanted to see was how Carter, the highlight king, would do it.

“The guy,” said Tracy McGrady, Carter’s Raptor teammate who finished second in the contest, “just can hop.”

Carter started the performance with a stunning, 360-twirl tomahawk that got a perfect score, and continued with an effort that finished with his clinging on the rim from the crook of his elbow, complete with a gymnast’s frozen pose.

And Carter ended it by clearing the court of the assorted players on hand, and then making an attempt that would’ve one-upped Julius Erving’s famous free-throw line one-handed dunk by doing it instead with two hands.

The slam went down, but he took off about a foot inside the free-throw line.

“He’s definitely incredible,” said Houston rookie Steve Francis, who finished third.

How do you think up a bouncing, twirling, between-the-legs, 360-degree spin dunk that got Carter his second ‘50’ of the competition?

“I made up some of the dunks on the fly,” Carter said, with an apparently unintentional, but very appropriate, metaphor.

This was the NBA’s first dunk competition since 1997, when Kobe Bryant won, and this time Bryant declined to enter.

But with the way Carter was flying, it’s unlikely anybody, except perhaps Michael Jordan in his prime, could have knocked Carter off.

Poor Jerry Stackhouse, who had to follow Carter in the first round, to resounding impatience from a crowd that only wanted to fast-forward to Carter’s next one.

Carter has maintained that he doesn’t want to be known strictly for his dunks.

“Yeah, this doesn’t help,” Carter said with a laugh.

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Led by most valuable player Elton Brand’s 14 points and 21 rebounds, the rookies defeated the class of ‘99, 92-83, in overtime.

The teams scored that many points in a 32-minute game, attesting to the quality of defense that each played. It was a flashy dunk show, in which the fans booed Cleveland rookie Andre Miller--the game’s high scorer with 21--for laying the ball up instead of jamming it.

The rookies’ Lamar Odom, mired in a slump in his day job with the Clippers, scored 15 points with eight rebounds and four assists.

Asked afterward how long it had been since he’d enjoyed himself as much, he said, grinning, “Maybe in the beginning of the season but it’s been a long haul for me.”

Said the Clippers’ Michael Olowokandi, who scored six points with eight rebounds for the class of ‘99: “We were just having fun. There wasn’t a lot of pressure to win and people weren’t getting mad at each other. People weren’t blaming each other. We weren’t being booed by the crowd.”

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Utah’s Jeff Hornacek pulled off a double-victory, winning the 2ball shooting competition with Utah Starzz partner Natalie Williams, and then successfully defending his three-pointing shooting title by edging Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki.