The BIG Three of the Miami Heat celebrates winning the Championship against the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game Five of the 2012 NBA Finals at American Airlines Arena on June 21, 2012 in Miami, Florida (Photo: NBA.com)
LeBron lifts his first NBA Trophy! (Photo: miamiherald.com)
Jeremy Evans - the NBA Slam Dunk Champion (Photo: NBA.com)
Kevin Durant - the NBA All-Star Game MVP (Photo: NBA.com)
NBA Awards 2012 - Jun 24, 2012
All-NBA 1st Team 2012
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James
Paul
Bryant
Durant
Howard
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Finals MVP:LeBron James (6'8''-F-84) of Miami Heat Most Valuable Player:LeBron JamesLeBron James (6'8''-F-84) of Miami Heat Most Improved Player:Ryan Anderson (6'10''-F-88) of Orlando M. Sixth Man:James Harden (6'5''-G-89) of Oklah.City T. Rookie of the Year:Kyrie Irving (6'3''-G-92) of Cleveland Cavaliers Defensive Player of the Year:Tyson Chandler (7'1''-C-82) of New York K. Executive of the Year:Larry Bird of Indiana Pacers Coach of the Year:Gregg Popovich of San Antonio S.
All-Defensive 1st Team Chris Paul (6'0''-PG-85) of LA Clippers Tony Allen (6'4''-G-82) of Memphis G. LeBron James (6'8''-F-84) of Miami Heat Serge Ibaka (6'10''-C/F-89) of Oklah.City T. Dwight Howard (6'11''-C-85) of Orlando M.
NBA All-Rookie 1st Team Kyrie Irving (6'3''-G-92) of Cleveland Cavaliers Ricky Rubio (6'4''-G-90) of Minnesota Timberwolves Kenneth Faried (6'8''-F-89) of Denver Nuggets Klay Thompson (6'6''-G-90) of Golden State Warriors Iman Shumpert (6'5''-G-90) of New York Knicks Kawhi Leonard (6'7''-F-91) of San Antonio Spurs Brandon Knight (6'3''-G-91) of Detroit Pistons
Champions! Miami Heat defeats Oklahoma City Thunder to win second NBA title - Jun 21, 2012
Two years ago, LeBron James (6'8''-F-84) chose to team up with Chris Bosh (6'11''-F-84, college: Georgia Tech) and Dwyane Wade (6'4''-G-82, college: Marquette) in Miami and build an instant basketball dynasty. The Heat fell two wins shy of beginning that reign in 2011. On Thursday, Miamis rule over the NBA officially began.
The Heat defeated the Thunder 121-106 at AmericanAirlines Arena in Game5 of the NBA Finals to clinch the world championship. After losing the first game of the series, the Heat won four in a row to earn the franchises second title. Although the Heats victories in Games2, 3 and 4 were close and decided by only a few possessions, the clincher was an emphatic statement of basketball greatness.
We believe we built a team to be around for a while, team president Pat Riley said.
Said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: We love you Miami. Thank you for your patience. We remember last year and we wanted to make up for it.
James, named Finals MVP, scored 26 points to go along with 13 assists and 11 rebounds, finishing with a triple-double in the biggest game of his career. His assist total tied a postseason career high. James entered Game5 averaging 29.3 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the series.
Its about damn time, James said after receiving his MVP trophy.
Its party time
James, Wade and Bosh checked out of the game with 3:01 left and the celebration was on. James smiled and lifted a single finger to the crowd. The building shook with excitement and noise. Minutes later, the celebratory streamers and confetti fell from the rafters and Spoelstra was drenched with Gatorade.
The entire fourth quarter felt like coronation inside thunderous AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat led by 24 points to begin the final period and led by 10 points to begin the second half.
Your champion, Miami Heat, NBA commissioner David Stern said during the presentation of the Larry OBrien Trophy at midcourt after the game.
Led by a barrage of three-pointers, Miami blew open the game with a 24-6 run in the third quarter. Battier made two three-pointers during the championship-clinching burst, and Chalmers, Chris Bosh and Mike Miller each contributed one three-pointer during the run.
Miller, who played the entire postseason, was sensational. He scored a postseason career high 23 points and was 7of8 from three-point range. The Heat made 14 of 26 attempts from three-point range, setting an NBA Finals record.
Wade had 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and three assists. Bosh, who missed nine consecutive games during the playoffs with an abdominal strain, had 24 points and seven rebounds.
James, whose postseason performance will enter the pantheon of the sport, did it with force and might, throwing his 6-8, 250-pound frame at the rim. He scored at least 16 points in the lane in each of his final seven playoff games. It was the longest such streak of his career.
The Heat broke off a 10-2 run early in the third quarter to push its lead to double digits. Chalmers drained his second three-pointer of the game less than two minutes into the quarter, and Battier followed with his second triple.
White-hot start
Led by James urgency, the Heat began the game like a team ready to close out the series. James started the scoring with a soaring dunk and then slashed to the basket for a five-point burst midway through the period. Meanwhile, Bosh matched James aggression in the lane, and Miller emerged from the bench to provide his most significant contribution of the series.
Miller, who played throughout the entire postseason with a bad back, literally limped into the game in the first quarter. He then started stroking three-pointers, including back-to-back threes at one point.
Miller had more points by halftime (nine) than he had in the series first four games combined (eight).
Shane Battier (6'8''-F-78, college: Duke) finished with 11 points and was 3of7 from three-point range. Chalmers had 10 points and was 2 of 4 from three-point range. Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 23 points and Russell Westbrook had 19. The Heat shot 51.9 percent from the field and 53.8 percent from three-point range, whereas the Thunder shot 41.4 percent.
Were going to have a party tonight, Riley said at midcourt during the championship trophy presentation after the game.
Courtesy of: www.miamiherald.com/
Durant, West hold on to win NBA All-Star Game - Feb 27, 2012
The Kevin Durant (6'9''-G/F-88, college: Texas) and Kobe Bryant (6'6''-G-78) show won it for the West at the NBA All-Star game, holding off LeBron James (6'8''-F-84) at the end.
They got an MVP and a scoring record, too.
Bryant scored 27 points, moving past Michael Jordan (6'7''-F-63, college: N.Carolina) as the career scoring leader in the game, Kevin Durant had 36 in an MVP performance, and the Western Conference held on for a 152-149 victory over the East on Sunday night.
James and the East cut a 21-point deficit to one in the closing seconds, but weren't able to move in front. James had 36 points and fellow Heat star Dwyane Wade finished with a triple-double.
'With all these great players on the floor, you never know what will happen. Guys making big shots and they cut it down to one. We were up 18 (at halftime),' Durant said.
'It was fun. That's the type of All-Star game you want to see.'
Blake Griffin (6'10''-F-89, college: Oklahoma) scored 22 points for the West, which rang up 89 points in the first half, setting an All-Star record. But he won the game with his defense, picking off James' pass when the East had a chance to tie in the final seconds.
'I can't turn the ball over like that,' James said. 'I let my team down, but overall it was a great weekend.'
Griffin then hit one free throw with 1.1 seconds left, and Wade was off on a 3-point attempt from the corner. He finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, joining Jordan and James as the only players with All-Star game triple-doubles.
Durant was the MVP, leaving Bryant tied for the All-Star record with his four. But he got a bigger mark in his 13th All-Star game.
He broke Jordan's record of 262 points on a dunk with 4:57 left in the third quarter and now has 271 for his career. He entered with 244 and passed Oscar Robertson (246 points) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (251) earlier in the game.
It nearly wasn't enough, as the East's comeback had the crowd filled with entertainers and athletes chanting for defense never a part of the All-Star game vocabulary in the final seconds.
With Bryant covering him, James hit two long 3-pointers in the final period, and the East had a chance when Bryant, with the crowd loudly booing, missed a free throw with 18 seconds left and the West up 151-149.
'Just being a competitor,' James said. 'They pretty much beat us up all game so we just wanted to make a game of it.'
But New Jersey's Deron Williams (6'3''-PG-84, college: Illinois) was short on a 3-pointer, and after the East came up with it, James fired a pass into a crowd that Griffin intercepted.
On a colorful night in Orlando, from pregame performer Nicki Minaj's pink and green hair to the neon sneakers many of the stars wore, Dwight Howard had nine points and 10 rebounds as the game's host.
The NBA's first All-Star game in Orlando in 20 years wasn't close after 2 quarters. But players always say it gets competitive in the final five minutes, and James was again up for the challenge.
He hiked his scoring average to 25.9 points over his eight All-Star games, and someday he'll probably take the record Bryant set Sunday.
But he couldn't quite catch Kobe in the game.
With the 2-year-old Amway Center considered by many the finest arena in the league, the NBA brought its midseason showcase back to Orlando for the first time since the memorable 1992 game, when Magic Johnson was MVP three months after retiring from the league because of the HIV virus.
This one was once in jeopardy of being lost when the lockout lasted into late November. Without a settlement then, All-Star weekend may have been wiped out, as it was in 1999 following a work stoppage.
The party was saved.
James and Howard, wearing bright orange shoes, danced onto the stage for pregame introductions, Howard breaking into an enormous grin when fans gave him a thunderous ovation as the last All-Star introduced. He insists that he and Magic fans still have a love affair despite his trade request, understanding he still loves the city even 'if not his team, and urged everyone to ignore the trade talk for a weekend and have fun.
'We did it big for our city,' he said in brief pregame remarks to the crowd before the game.
Then Andrew Bynum blocked his first shot attempt.
The speedy Russell Westbrook had the East looking like it was standing still late in the first half, and it was 88-69 at the break.
Howard and Derrick Rose (6'3''-G-88, college: Memphis) ditched their orange sneakers in the second half James kept his and the East quickly got back into it, trimming 12 points off its deficit in less than 6 minutes. They even started to defend Wade whacked Bryant so hard on a drive that the Lakers star needed a break between free throws to wipe blood from his nose before sinking it to tie Jordan.
Williams scored 20 points for the East. Carmelo Anthony (6'8''-F-84, college: Syracuse) had 19, and Rose finished with 14.
Kevin Love (6'10''-C-88, college: UCLA), who won the 3-point contest on Saturday, scored 17 points for the West, which has won two in a row. Chris Paul (6'0''-PG-85, college: Wake Forest) had eight points and 12 assists.
Courtesy of https://abcnews.go.com
All-Star Weekend 2012: Jeremy Evans wins slam dunk contest, Tony Parker wins Skills Competition - Feb 26, 2012
His nickname is the Human Pogo Stick and Utah's Jeremy Evans (6'9''-F-87, agency: N.E.T., college: W.Kentucky) 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 NBA's All-Star Saturday festivities.
Evans, who got into the competition as a replacement for injured New York guard Iman Shumpert, earned 29 percent of the 3 million votes cast. He beat out Houston's Chase Budinger, Indiana's Paul George and Minnesota's Derrick Williams for the Jazz's 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 didn't 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.
'I've very happy with my performance. I went out there, I had a plan and I executed the plan and the fans voted and I didn't win and that happens sometimes,' Budinger said. 'But I had great dunks and they're 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 of 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, I'm 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 I'll just continue to improve year in and year out.'
Celebrities lined the court for the appetizer before Sunday's 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 WNBA's New York Liberty the victory.
San Antonio point guard Tony Parker (6'0''-PG-82) then won the Skills Competition. Parker was the only one of six participants to break 30 seconds in the first round (29.2) and his time of 32.8 in the final run on the obstacle course was better than Boston's Rajon Rondo (34.6) and New Jersey's Deron Williams (41.4).
Love was tied for third after the opening round of the Shootout and beat Miami's 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.
Orlando's Ryan Anderson just missed eliminating both Love and Chalmers, totaling 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 Saturday.
Kyrie Irving (6'3''-G-92, college: Duke) kicked off the aerial display with an alley-oop to Paul George (6'9''-G/F-90, agency: Priority Sports, college: Fresno St.). Cleveland's rookie point guard then showed off his long-range shooting skills.
It was so much fun that Irving wasn't too upset that all those 3-pointers came in a meaningless game.
Irving was a perfect 8 for 8 from beyond the arc and finished with 34 points, helping Team Chuck beat Team Shaq 146-133 in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday.
Indiana's George added 23 points but the night belonged to Irving, who picked up where another No. 1 overall pick left off in the NBA's showcase game for its first- and second-year players. Wizards point guard John Wall earned MVP honors last season when he was a rookie.
Irving said he couldn't remember being so hot from the field.
'No, it's never occurred in my career,' he said. 'You know, it's kind of unfortunate that it comes in the All-Star game. These stats don't carry over into the season. But at the end of the day, it was still fun to get out there with those talented guys. So it was a great experience.'
Cleveland's Tristan Thompson (6'8''-F-91, college: Texas) scored 20 points to lead Team Shaq. New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin (6'3''-PG-88, college: Harvard) only had two points.
This year's Rising Stars Challenge had a different format, with the rookie and second-year players mixed together on teams for the first time. The league also inserted a little more name recognition with former stars Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley serving as general managers and drafting the teams.
While the teams had a different look, there was once again no real defensive effort and plenty of fan-pleasing fast breaks and flashy play.
'It's what All-Star games are, there's not a lot of defense,' Team Chuck co-head coach Maurice Cheeks said.
Lin had a relatively quiet night. His biggest highlight came early in the second half when he took a pass from Minnesota star Ricky Rubio (6'4''-G-90) and drove it underneath for a reverse layup.
He played just nine minutes before heading to the bench in the second half, and instead mostly yielded to the more high-flying players on his team. He took just four shots.
Landry Fields (6'7''-G/F-88, college: Stanford), who plays with Lin on the Knicks, remained his biggest fan, holding a 'Linsanity' Time magazine cover featuring him.
'It was fun to be out there with all these guys, and this guy right here (pointing to magazine) did his thing,' Fields said. 'Short minutes, but he still did his thing.'
Irving got the game off to a rousing start with the pass to George, and Rubio turned routine passes to his Shaq teammates into behind-the-back and between-the-leg looks.
It was part of an acrobatic early tone that was fast-paced and allowed the next generation of stars to showcase open-court and aerial skills that have already made many of them fan favorites on their respective teams.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (6'10''-F-89, college: Oklahoma) had several highlights while playing for Team Shaq, catching several alley-oops and even throwing his own pass off the glass and catching it for a dunk.
'There were a lot of dunks,' Team Shaq co-head coach Ron Adams said. 'I think the guys had fun. I hope we didn't set a Guinness Book of World Records record for dunks given, but it was a fun game. Interesting game.'
Courtesy of ESPN
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