Kapono Defends Title; Howard Wows Crowd

By Stan McNeal
Sean Deveney and Stan McNeal are on the ground in New Orleans, covering the All-Star festivities. Check back all weekend for updates.
Practice makes perfect, right? In the case of the participants in the 3-point shooting contest at All-Star Saturday, absolutely.
Daniel Gibson says he won’t leave a practice until he makes at least 70 3-pointers, 10 each at seven different spots. If he doesn’t make 8 of 10 from a particular spot, he starts over. That’s nothing compared to the summer. He shoots 500 in the morning and another 500 in the afternoon.
After Mavericks practices, Dirk Nowitzki will go around the 3-point half circle, making 3-5 at each spot before moving on. In the summers, he shoots for a good two hours without stopping. Between every 3-point spot, he shoots free throws. He’s talking about a thousand shots or more a day.
Steve Nash, not quite as many. He shoots about 20-50 after Suns’ practices and not even that much in the summer. He says he doesn’t practice spotup shooting much because most of his 3’s come off the dribble.
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And the best shooter in the league? Raptors Jason Kopono says he’ll shoot 50 some days, not so many on other days. “I shoot ‘til I find my rhythm,†he says. “I’m a rhythm shooter, not a volume shooter.” In the summers, he shoots more but not nearly as many as Nowitzki or Gibson. His best effort in practice: 89 out of 100.
“Not bad, huh,†he is telling me on the way to the NBA photos booth to have his shot taken with the trophy he won Saturday night. In the final round, he made 20 of his 25 attempts -- including all five money balls --- to tie the record of 25 (out of 30) points.
He now has won the 3-point shooting contest two years in a row now and he’s also the league-leader in 3-points at 51.0 percent -- the only player among the qualifiers over 50 percent. Not bad, huh?
The dunk contest is still in the first round but I think we’ve seen the highlight. Thank you, Dwight Howard. Hopefully, there’s video with this because it’s almost indescribable. Here goes: Howard takes off from out of bounds, reaches around to dunk with his left hand while his body is still on the out-of-bounds side of the backboard. He makes it on his second try. Even the difficult-to-impress judges are impmressed: He gets five 10s for a perfect 50.↵