ORLANDO, Fla. Raptors Jersey . -- His nickname is the Human Pogo Stick and Utahs Jeremy Evans set out to put some bounce back into the Slam Dunk Contest. Evans endeared himself to the fans with a mix of props and creativity, and they voted him the winner of one of the marquee events of the NBAs All-Star Saturday festivities. Evans, who got into the competition as a replacement for injured New York guard Iman Shumpert, earned 29 per cent of the 3 million votes cast. He beat out Houstons Chase Budinger, Indianas Paul George and Minnesotas Derrick Williams for the Jazzs first-ever trophy in the contest. In a departure from past dunk competitions, fans were given complete voting power and cast their ballots by text message after each of the four participants competed in three one-dunk rounds. Evans dunked with a camera on his head, slammed two basketballs while jumping over a seated assistant and donned a Karl Malone jersey to dunk over mailman-dressed comedian Kevin Hart. Evans said the Jazz didnt have any input in the Malone-themed idea. "Not at all," he said. "I was just thanking the Jazz fans. You want to do something to get them in it. So I felt that was a good way. And Dwight Howard, he helped me big time. That was huge." Budinger got just as many cheers from the Amway Center fans as Evans, and some in the celebrity-filled crowd sighed when the winner was announced. Budinger got his biggest reaction when he donned a Cedric Ceballos jersey and imitated his 1992 blindfolded dunk, completing it with a reverse slam. "Ive very happy with my performance. I went out there, I had a plan and I executed the plan and the fans voted and I didnt win and that happens sometimes," Budinger said. "But I had great dunks and theyre going to be great memories as well." Kevin Love knows something about dunking. He does most of his dirty work inside for Minnesota, but he got to show off his outside touch on Saturday night. Love beat out Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant to win the 3-Point Shootout. The former UCLA star was consistent throughout, but had to survive a tiebreaker in the first round and sweat out the last few shots from Durant to pull out the 17-14 victory in the final. Love is in the middle for a breakout year for Minnesota, averaging 25 points and 9.9 rebounds a game. But he also has connected on 49 of 141 3-point attempts for the Timberwolves. "You know, Im a guy that loves to rebound the ball, a guy that loves to play inside, really a physical player," Love said. "But for me, coming into the league, I was told not to shoot 3-point shots, so to be where I am now and continue to work on my game; I think this definitely speaks to my versatility. I think Ill just continue to improve year in and year out." Celebrities lined the court for the appetizer before Sundays NBA All-Star game, and the first event saw the continuation of the good vibes that New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin has brought to the Big Apple recently With Knicks super fan Spike Lee looking on, Team New York had the touch from the outside and won the Shooting Stars event. Former Knicks star Allan Houston nailed his third attempt at a half-court shot to give his team consisting of current Knicks guard Landry Fields and Cappie Pondexter of the WNBAs New York Liberty the victory. San Antonio point guard Tony Parker then won the Skills Competition. Parker was the only one of six participants to break 30 seconds in the first round (29.2) and this time of 32.8 in the final run on the obstacle course was better than Bostons Rajon Rondo (34.6) and New Jerseys Deron Williams (41.4). Love was tied for third after the opening round of the Shootout and beat Miamis Mario Chalmers 5-4 in a tiebreaker. Defending champion James Jones led all shooters in the opening round with 22 and Durant was next with 20. Orlandos Ryan Anderson just missed eliminating both Love and Chalmers, totalling 17 after missing his final 2-point money ball. Love and Durant both had 16 in Round 2 to advance to the finals, with Jones posting 12. Houston, Fields and Pondexter completed the shooting course in 37.3 seconds in the final round. It was better than the 47.6 posted by the Team Texas trio of former Houston Rockets star and TNT analyst Kenny Smith, current Rocket Chandler Parsons and Sophia Young of the San Antonio Silver Stars. Team Orlando and Atlanta posted the slowest times of Round 1 and were eliminated. The speedy Parker put together an impressive display on the skills obstacle course, which involves participants moving through a dribbling circuit, successfully throwing chest passes through a hanging tire and driving for a layup. Williams, the 2008 winner, holds the record for the skills course at 25 seconds, but had trouble completing a pass in the final round on Saturday. Amir Johnson Raptors . -- Goalie Carey Price and defencemen Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin werent on the flight when the Montreal Canadiens left Tuesday to face the Blackhawks in Chicago. Bruno Caboclo Raptors .com) - Hall of Fame forward Jean Beliveau, who led the Montreal Canadiens to 10 Stanley Cup Championships, died on Tuesday.ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- No, no, and six times no. Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone was in no mood Monday to join the chorus of praise directed at his rookie quarterback. While Bills players and fans were still buzzing a day after EJ Manuel displayed poise and flair in leading Buffalo to a last-second 24-23 win over Carolina, Marrone wasnt making apologies for being a wet blanket. Dramatic as the comeback was, Marrone insisted that Manuel hasnt yet arrived two weeks into the season. "Oh, no, no. Cmon, no," Marrone said, before repeating "No," three more times. "Dont get me wrong, were excited about that. And thats what we expected. But theres some other things that we need to get out of him, and we will." Marrone preferred holding Manuel to a much higher standard by judging his performance over the entire 60 minutes rather than what the first-round pick out of Florida State accomplished with 1:38 left. With no timeouts, Manuel capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Stevie Johnson with 2 seconds remaining. In doing so, Manuel delivered his rookie head coach and the new-look Bills (1-1) their first victory of the season. And he became only the fifth NFL rookie since 1960 to produce a fourth-quarter comeback victory in his first or second game. Marrone instead pointed to several miscues, including two second-half turnovers -- a fumble and interception -- Manuel committed on consecutive possessions, both of which led to Panthers field goals. "Theres a lot of things that we have to clean up for him," Marrone said. "Theres a lot of mistakes that are out there that he committed that we dont expect." Its a tough-love approach Marrone is taking with Manuel as Buffalo prepares to play at the New York Jets (1-1) on Sunday. Criticisms aside, Manuel showed encouraging signs of taking the next step in his development as the Bills quarterback of the future. Manuel went 27 of 39 for 296 yards passing to nearly double his production after going 18 of 27 for 150 yards in a 23-21 seasoon-opening loss to New England. Amir Johnson Raptors Jersey. The Bills offence was far more productive in generating 436 yards and 24 first downs after being limited to 286 yards and 15 first downs against the Patriots. And Manuel was at his best with the game in the balance. Starting with an 8-yard completion to Johnson in the left flat, Manuel completed 6 of 8 attempts for 51 yards on the decisive drive. He also showed his mobility in setting up the touchdown by eluding two pass-rushers to scramble 9 yards up the right sideline before diving out of bounds at the Carolina 2. "That just shows you that hes ready to be the guy for us, ready to put all this on his shoulders," veteran running back Fred Jackson said. "And when given that opportunity to win a football game, hes going to do whatever he can to get it done." Jackson played a role in bailing Manuel out of trouble. With Buffalo facing first-and-10 at the Carolina 46, Manuel attempted to dump off a pass to Jackson in the right flat. With linebacker Thomas Davis closing in on him, Jackson chose to drop the ball in order to save time rather than get tackled in middle of the field. "It just wasnt worth the catch to get a 1-yard gain and run 10 seconds off the clock," Jackson said. "So at the time, I was just thinking, Ive got to drop this and preserve the time." Johnson described Jacksons decision as a heads-up play made by "a savvy vet." Manuel also got help from a pass-interference penalty against linebacker Luke Kuechly. The penalty gave Buffalo the ball at the Carolina 10, and negated an interception Manuel threw in sailing a pass over Johnsons head. "We caught some breaks on that last drive, and thats what needs to happen. But (Manuel) stayed calm," centre Eric Wood said, noting Manuel won four Bowl games at Florida State. "For him, it showed some grit and obviously some play-making ability. We knew he had it. He showed it before in college in different situations. But he showed it on a really big stage yesterday." Cheap JerseysWholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys ' ' '
