2014 All-Star Weekend

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Note: Pacers.com's Scott Agness and Wheat Hotchkiss both contributed to this story.

Paul George returned to the Slam Dunk Contest seeking to get back what he believed was his in 2012. That year, George felt he should have won the competition instead of actual champion Jeremy Evans.

On Saturday night in New Orleans, George got some degree of redemption, as his Eastern Conference squad swept the West for the title in a new format that made the contest a conference challenge rather than an individual competition.

“I feel like I redeemed (myself from) 2012, and I did it alongside some good friends,” George said.

The dunk contest featured an improved lineup, including three All-Stars — George, John Wall and Damian Lillard — for just the second time in contest history (1988).
Joining George on the East team was Wall and Toronto’s Terrence Ross. The West unit included Lillard, Golden State’s Harrison Barnes and Sacramento’s Ben McLemore.

The first round in the new format was a Freestyle Round, where each team completed as many dunks as they could in 90 seconds. Practice and coordination on Friday paid off for the East, who capped off the Freestyle Round with a pass off the backboard to George for a right-handed jam.

NBA legends Dominique Wilkins, Magic Johnson, and Julius Erving judged the event, and they all favored the East after the first round.

The Eastern Conference trio then dominated the Battle Round. Terrence Ross edged Lillard, 2-1, in the night’s first battle.

George then pulled off an impressive 360-degree between-the-legs one-handed slam, though it took him three tries. He had no trouble disposing of Barnes, who missed twice and then threw down a pretty generic windmill.

“I tried to pull something else special out, and something that hasn’t been done,” George said of the dunk.

Added Barnes: “It’s hard to top a 360 between-the-legs. So regardless of what I’d done, it would have been hard to top that.”

George admitted he felt pressure to pull off the dunk on his final attempt, but quipped, “You know me, I like pressure.”

Washington Wizards guard John Wall ended the night with a reverse slam after grabbing the ball from — and jumping over — the Wizards team mascot. That successful dunk earned him the title “Dunker of the Night,” as voted on by the fans.

“Man, it was special,” George said about Wall’s dunk. “He did it in a practice run, and I knew that was going to be the dunk of the night when he did it.”

After Saturday’s contest, George stopped by the Mixed Zone to meet with the media, then was whisked away to pose for photos with the Slam Dunk Contest trophy. On route, George had a memorable encounter with a couple major celebrities.

First, George ran into music mogul Diddy, who stopped the Pacers’ 23 year-old star for a two-minute conversation. Diddy expressed his respect for George’s dunk and wished him luck the rest of the season.

While George and Diddy were speaking, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Basketball Hall of Famer and legendary dunker, got George’s attention, patted him on the shoulder, and offered some words of encouragement, saying: “Keep pushing, man.”

As for the new format, George said it was fun to be part of a team, but he isn’t sure if it has staying power. George said the biggest drawback with the new system was that the East sweep only allowed for himself, Ross, and Wall to show off one dunk.

“We had other stuff lined up that we were going to do, if we needed to get to that point,” George said. “…We’re going to save it in case somebody wants to challenge us.”

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George's East Team Wins Dunk Contest

Wheat Hotchkiss

NEW ORLEANS – The Pacers are undefeated so far at All-Star Weekend 2014.

On Friday night, Pacers associate head coach Nate McMillan coached Team Hill to a 142-136  victory over Team Webber in the Rising Stars Challenge at Smoothie King Center.

The two teams, composed of the best NBA players in the their first or second year in the league, were drafted by former All-Stars and current Turner Sports television analysts Grant Hill and Chris Webber in a live draft on TNT last week. Hill and Webber then handed over the reins to the top assistants from the two coaching staffs that are coaching the East and West squads in Sunday night’s All-Star Game.

McMillan, in his first year working under Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, headed up Team Hill, while Rex Kalamian, the top assistant for Scott Brooks’ Oklahoma City Thunder staff, coached Team Webber.

Friday’s contest was an up-and-down affair, with the league’s best young players putting on an offensive clinic for the fans. Though it was a relaxed atmosphere for most of the night, both teams ratcheted up the intensity level with the score tight in the final minutes.

McMillan’s Team Hill squad trailed 124-120 with just over three minutes remaining, but a pair of 3-pointers from Dion Waiters gave Team Hill a lead it would not relinquish.

"One of the things that I talked to the guys about was going out and playing the game the right way and forcing that team to have to come out and play," McMillan said after the game.

McMillan especially praised the effort and intensity from Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond, who took home MVP honors for his efforts for the victorious squad, scoring 30 points and grabbing 25 rebounds (14 on the offensive end).

"I think Drummond had in his mind that he wanted to put up a double-double," McMillan said. "...Every rebound that came off the board, he wanted."

Waiters led Team Hill with 31 points. Team Webber’s Tim Hardaway, Jr. led all scorers with 36 points.

Of local interest, former Pacers center Miles Plumlee hit both of his shots, scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in 15 minutes of action for Team Hill. The Warsaw, Ind. native’s younger brother, Mason Plumlee, had 20 points and seven rebounds for Team Webber. Team Webber also featured Indiana University graduate Victor Oladipo, who scored 13 points and dished out four assists.

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McMillan Coaches Team Hill to Victory in Rising Stars Challenge

Paul George is becoming a mainstay at the NBA's All-Star Weekend.

For the third straight season, George will compete in an event as part of All-Star Saturday Night, as the 23-year-old budding superstar has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2014 Slam Dunk Contest. George will also serve as captain of the Eastern Conference team during Saturday night's events. George's East team will compete for charity against Stephen Curry's Western Conference squad.

George previously competed in the event in 2012 in Orlando. That year, he successfully executed a trio of crowd-pleasing dunks, but lost to Utah's Jeremy Evans.

In his first dunk that year, George jumped over two teammates, Dahntay Jones and 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert. For his second attempt, George had the lights turned off at the Amway Center and pulled off a 360-degree windmill in a glow-in-the-dark uniform. It was a spectacular dunk and a cool concept, but it was hard for fans to see the dunk itself live, which may have had an adverse impact on George's chances. In his third and final attempt, George paid homage to Pacers President Larry Bird by slapping a sticker with Bird's face on the backboard while dunking with his other hand.

After trying his hand at the Three-Point Shootout last year in Houston (and watching then-Pacers teammate Gerald Green vie for the dunking title), George is ready to give the Dunk Contest another go.

George's selection comes on the heels of a recent display of spectacular slams that have had fans clamoring for him to return to the competition, including one of the early favorites for the unofficial honor of "Dunk of the Year," a dazzling 360-degree windmill that stunned the sold-out crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse during the Pacers' victory over the Clippers on Jan. 18. The slam was eerily similar to Vince Carter's dunk in 2000, one of the most iconic moments in Slam Dunk Contest history.

In the Pacers' win in Atlanta on Tuesday night, George again unleashed a show-stopping dunk, when he threw down another windmill dunk that caught the attention of Dominique Wilkins, Hawks broadcaster and two-time Slam Dunk champion.

His recent in-game exploits made him a popular fan choice for the dunk contest, but George played coy with the media about whether or not he would accept an invitation all the way up through Thursday afternoon. When asked about participating in the dunk contest a few weeks ago, George said his decision hinged in part on who else was in the event.

"I want to be in it when the competition is good," George said at the time, according to Pacers.com's Scott Agness.

The competition this year is, indeed, very good.

On Feb. 16, George will headline one of the more star-studded dunk contest fields in recent memory. George will be joined by John Wall of the Washington Wizards, Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors, Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, Harrison Barnes of the Golden State Warriors, and Ben McLemore of the Sacramento Kings.

This year's event will feature a new format with "Freestyle" and "Battle" rounds. In the Freestyle round, each contestant has 90 seconds to display as many dunks as they desire. In the Battle Round, George will face off head-to-head against one of the Western Conference dunkers (Lillard, Barnes, or McLemore). The first conference to win three battles will win the team competition, and then fans can vote for one player as "Dunker of the Night."

George, Wall, and Lillard all are 2014 All-Stars. Barnes was chosen to participate in the 2014 Rising Stars Challenge and McLemore was a top-10 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. Ross is the defending Slam Dunk Contest champion, scoring 99 out of a possible 100 in his first two dunks last year before decisively winning the fan vote over Evans in the final round. And this group should only get better with time, as all six of the entrants are 23 or younger.

But while all of this year's contestants are part of the league's youth movement, none of the competitors' stars have yet soared as much as George's in the past few years. In just a couple years, the 6-foot-9 forward (George is the tallest of any of the six competitors in this year's contest) has grown from a virtual unknown out of Fresno State to one of the most popular players in the entire NBA.

In 2012, George was chosen to participate in the Rising Stars Challenge game featuring the best NBA players in their first or second year in the league. In 2013, he was chosen as a reserve on the Eastern Conference All-Star team. And this year, George  was elected as a starter in the All-Star Game, collecting the third-most fan votes of any player in the league, a colossal increase from the previous year.

Barring injury, George will be the first player to compete in the dunk contest and start in the All-Star Game in the same year since Dwight Howard in 2009. George is one of seven Pacers players who have participated in the competition — the others are Terrence Stansbury, Kenny Williams, Antonio Davis, Jonathan Bender, Fred Jones, and Gerald Green. Jones won the 2004 contest, the only Pacers player yet to win.

But if George can replicate the performances he's been putting on in games come All-Star Weekend, Jones might have some company.

2014 All‑Star Weekend

George's East Team Wins Dunk Contest

McMillan Coaches Team Hill to Victory in Rising Stars Challenge

By Popular Demand, Paul George Returns to the Dunk Contest