The Rookie Challenge just ended with the Billy Cunningham coached Rookies prevailing over Chuck Daly's Sophomores. It was a very exciting game with a lot of high-flying, fast-paced action all over the place. In the first of two 20 minute halves, the Clippers' Sophomore duo of Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles were dominating the game. Richardson was on fire with 21 first-half points, and Miles added 12 on some amazing moves for a 6-9 player. However, in the second-half, a different Richardson, this time Jason, the Warriors high-flying Rookie, took over the half. The Sophomores had a good lead early in the half, but Richardson led a 13-0 run (or something like 13-0) that gave the Rookies the lead again. Once they got that lead they were able to hold on to it for pretty much the rest of the game. Richardson scored 15 in the half to finish with 26 points and 8 rebounds, as he was named MVP of the Got Milk Rookie Challenge. Some of the better highlights of the night included a reverse put-back slam, a 360 jam, and a monster dunk over Chris Mihm all by Jason Richardson. Darius Miles added some more highlights with a move where he hopped his way from the top of the key to a beautiful scoop-shot inside. He also led a nice break with a behind the back pass. Jamaal Tinsley had a few nice moves, while exhibiting some of his playground moves. Kenyon Martin and Quentin Richardson both had a fair share of two handed jams and alley-oops. The funnier plays of the night came from the goofy Jazz rookie Andrei Kirilenko. In the first-half he tried to join in on the showtime, and attempted a behind-the-back pass, only to end up falling down with the ball. Another incident occured with a few minutes left in the game, when a ball bounced off his foot, and towards the scorers' tables, where it hit announcer Huby Brown in the face. Fortunately for Huby his glasses didn't break or anything, which could have caused cuts. Despite Eddie Griffin's snub it was still a great game and the Rookie team won for the 2nd time in 3 years (First Rookie win was with Francis, Brand, Szczerbiak, Baron, Odom, Marion, Andre etc..and the lone Rookie loss was when the next rookie class, had to face those same guys as Sophomores). Final Score: Rookies 103, Sophomores 97. Up next is a 1 hour special on Allen Iverson, which will be followed by the rest of the exciting Saturday night events, such as the Slam Dunk Contest, 3-point shootout, as well as the new 3-on-3 tournament between teams from Houston, Philadelphia, LA and the International team.
The sophs would have been blown out if Eddie had played. Hmmmph. But hey...when Eddie becomes a superstar and him, Francis and Mobley lead Houston to an NBA title in the new arena, Eddie will get his.
In a interview with Kobe Bryant... "......So Kobe, who's your favorite for the dunk contest?" "Well I like Jason Richardson. That kids got a lot of stuff." "Why aren't you in the contest Kobe? I know a lot of the fans would love to see you there" "Because I'm too old. heh" "Too old? You're only 23!" "Yeah, well they didn't ask me to be in it..."
I was at the All Star practices and the Rookie Challenge today. In the All Star practice they did a 5 man weave drill, ran 2 plays, and just shot around and fooled around. Wink hit 2 half court shots. Before the game they showed a video of the Rookie Challenge last year and it showed Wink dribbling over Elamin's head.
