NEW ORLEANS – Look, up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Dwight Howard – super slam dunk champion.
A red cape trailing behind him, Orlando's man of steel made like Superman and won the most creative and perhaps the best dunk contest in NBA history to close All-Star Saturday.
Using a variety of props as well as teammate Jameer Nelson, Howard scored perfect 50s from judges on his first two dunks before the contest was turned over to fan voting for the first time in the final round.
In any other year, Minnesota's Gerald Green would have easily walked away with his second straight dunking crown, but he was upstaged by the amazingly athletic Howard, who at 6-feet-11 was the tallest dunk champion.
The dunk contest, bland for so many years as the game's high risers seemed to run out of ideas, was freshened up by some of the most creative aerial assaults in memory.
Howard, Green, Toronto's Jamario Moon and Memphis' Rudy Gay all used tape, ladders, teammates and even a dessert to show their stuff.
“I think the dunk contest is back,” said Howard, who failed to make it out of the first round last year. “I don't think people want to see the same old dunks. They want to see something else, see some spice.”
Standing on the baseline, Howard tossed the ball off the reverse side of the backboard, caught it with both hands, and after peering through the glass at the rim, dunked left-handed.
Not to be outdone, Green tried to blow the field away – literally. With a cupcake with a single candle in it on the back of the rim, Green soared in and puffed out the flame before throwing down a nasty left-hander.
“At first I thought he was going to take the cupcake, eat it and then dunk it,” Howard said. “I thought he would have won with that.”
In the second round Howard stripped off his blue Magic jersey to reveal an “S” on his chest. As the crowd stood, he tied the cape around his massive shoulders.
After a running start from near midcourt, Howard took off just inside the free-throw line and fired down the ball with authority.
In the final round, Green performed two acrobatic dunks, one in only green socks after removing his sneakers. But neither of those could top Howard's last two efforts. Howard won the fan vote in a landslide (78 percent).
Earlier, Toronto forward Jason Kapono, the NBA's best three-point shooter this season, won his second straight 3-Point Shootout, tying a 22-year-old record with a final round of 25 points.
Utah's Deron Williams won the Skills Challenge, and San Antonio's Becky Hammon, David Robinson and Tim Duncan won the Shooting Stars competition.
